Hogwarts School Years: Year 3
by DreamKnights1498
Summary: Sequel to Hogwarts School Years 1 and 2. It's time for the four heroines third year of Hogwarts and of course, there are more dangers and adventures to come. Read to see their next adventure!
1. Shocking News, Rules and Strange Student

Hello! This is the first chapter of a new year for our four heroines. If you haven't read Year 1 and 2 we suggest you read that first, otherwise, it won't make sense. For people who have, thank you for continuing to read or story. We appreciate it. Enjoy!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**_

* * *

**_Michelle's POV_  
**

_**SIR WILLIAM FABRAY III **_

_**ESCAPES FROM AZKABAN**_

_**by Renee Skeeter**_

_Sir William Fabray III, convicted of kidnap, attempted murder and multiple counts of murder has recently escaped from Azkaban. Fabray has evaded capture for multiple years but was finally caught in late June at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Headmaster Aberforth Dumbledore refuses to reveal the events that had happened involving Fabray but he was convicted of kidnap and attempted murder for three of the second year is the second case of a prisoner escaping from Azkaban, the first being Sirius Black, who was convicted of murder but was found innocent after he died. No one knows of his method of escape. Fabray was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss to be done at the end of the month._

_Is Fabray innocent? Is that the reason he was able to escape? Does this have anything to do with the numerous amounts of dark events recently? Is he a follower of he who must not be named? Is he going to raise again? Maybe cause another war? Keep reading for more details. _

I just stare at the newspaper for who knows how long. He's escaped? How can he have done that? He's definitely not innocent like the predictions say. If that has anything to do with escaping that's not how he escaped. What's bad is that now we've made him angrier than before. What if he comes after us?

Suddenly Melanie grabs the newspaper from my hand disturbing my trail of thoughts.

"What are you looking at? You've been staring at it for over ten minutes." she says. Her eyes skim the page and she puts it down angrily on the table. "They should have done it right away! Now he's escaped and free to go kidnapping and killing more people!"

"Melanie, calm down, he might not even come after us. They'll catch him again soon." says Milly.

"They better..." says Melanie still angry.

Just then Nellie walks in. "Mis~ I mean Michelle, Ms. Lynn and Ms. Xiang are here to see you, would you like me to let them in and call Ms. Wu down?

"Yes please Nellie, and no need to be so formal with my friends either. Thank you." I say.

Nellie leaves the room and soon comes back with Tamara and Natalie. They look almost exactly the same. Maybe they've grown a centimetre taller or something...Then again I always think that. I just always feel short.

"Hey," Natalie greets with a smile. "How's your summer been?"

"Terrible now that I've read this." I say pointing to the Daily Prophet on the table. "Have you read it?"

"Yeah, I can't believe he's escaped." says Tamara.

"Who's escaped?" asks Jennifer from the doorway as she walks in.

"William Fabray." I answer dully.

"III?" she asks surprised, eyes widened a bit.

"Yeah..." says Natalie.

"But how...?" asks Jennifer.

"That's the problem, we don't know." says Tamara.

"Do you think he'll come after us?" asks Jennifer with concern.

I shrug. "I don't know, that's what I've been thinking about."

"Same." says both Natalie and Tamara.

"Well we shouldn't worry about it, he might not come after us again right?" I say trying to lighten up the mood in the room.

"I guess..." says Natalie.

Just then six owls come flying through the window, each with a letter tied onto their leg. I take the letter with mine and give it a few pieces of cereal from the table. It flies off soon after that.

"Well I guess we should go get our school supplies today." says Tamara.

"Yeah, I guess so," I say. "We can take the Knight Bus, my parents are at work today and we're out of floo powder"

"The Knight Bus?" asks Jennifer. "What's that?"

"You'll see." I say.

The six of us walk out and I look around for Muggles. I see that there is no one else on the street and quickly raise my wand. Within a few seconds the purple, triple-decker bus pulls up to the sidewalk.

"Hello, my name is Stan Shunpike and I'll be your conductor today on the Knight Bus. Where are you going today?" the conductor says.

"The Leaky Cauldron please," I say.

"The six of you?" he asks. "That'll be ten sickles each." We all pay and walk onto the bus. We decide to stay on the first deck.

"Um...shouldn't the chairs be nailed down to the floor?" asks Jennifer as she sits down on a chair. The rest of us are standing holding onto the bars on the side of the bus.

"I would suggest you stand Jennifer." says Tamara.

"Why?" she asks.

Before she can answer Stan says "Start driving Ern," to the bus driver, Ernie.

We zoom off and Jennifer's chair starts sliding as we try to hold on to the side of the bus. The bus starts going faster and faster and Jennifer holds onto the chair as hard as she can as she slides back and forth. Luckily we don't see any other cars or trucks that block our way or we would have been squeezed into a sandwich. Soon the bus stops in front of the Leaky Cauldron.

"That's why?" I say to Jennifer as we all walk off the bus.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she asks as we walk to the back of the Leaky Cauldron, tapping on the right bricks.

"Well, we never really got the chance." says Natalie.

"It's okay Jennifer, we all went through that the first time." says Tamara.

"So where are we going first?" I ask.

"I guess we could get our books." says Natalie.

"Yeah, let's go." says Jennifer still looking a little disoriented from the ride.

When I arrive I take out the list of school supplies:

_**COURSE BOOKS**_

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3) by __Miranda Goshawk_

_The Monster Book of Monsters by Edwardus Lima_

_Intermediate Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky_

We get our books and walk out of the store. Next we decide to go to the Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. After last year, we definitely need new ones.

We're about to pass the entrance to Knockturn Alley when I bump into someone walking in. He looks to be about our age but I haven't seen him before. He has grey eyes and red hair; and I mean completely red, not highlights. Not a neon red, more like a settle red.

"Oh, sorry." I mumble. I not even sure he even caught it, because by the time the words came out of my mouth he was already turning into Knockturn Alley. Wait.

Turning into Knockturn Alley?! Why would he do that? Even if we're wrong about his age he should still be about the age of an Hogwarts student. Even if he was out of Hogwarts most people wouldn't go in there unless they were involved with Dark Magic. That's strange...I wonder who he is. I decide to just ignore it and we keep walking. After getting new robes the four of us go to Ollivanders to get Natalie a new wand while Milly and Melanie walk off to meet some of their Gryffindor friends.

We walk in and Natalie goes up to Ollivander at the desk.

"Try this one, oak and dragon heartstring, eleven and a half inches, quite flexible." says Ollivander holding the wand out for her to hold.

"_Wingardium Leviosa._" she says aiming at a book. It bursts into flames.

"No, I don't think that's right." he says as he puts out the fire. He pulls out another wand. "How about this one, pine and unicorn hair, 12 inches exactly, bendy."

"_Lumos._" The wand tip lights up immediately. "_Nox_"

"Well, I guess that is the wand for you, try not to break it." he says.

"I'll try." says Natalie handing him the money. Ollivander hands her the box and we all walk out. We walk back to the Leaky Cauldron and meet up with Melanie and Milly. We order pumpkin juice and we wait and talk for the rest of the morning till Mr. and Mrs. Chang come and pick us up.

* * *

I run into the platform between nine and ten and appear on the other side. Jennifer follows. The two of us find Natalie and Tamara and we board the train. We find a compartment to ourselves and sit down.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness we don't have to share a compartment with _him_ again."

"You know, Keith made you go on that date so you can become friends, not make you hate him even more." Tamara states.

"Well...I don't hate him. I just strongly dislike him."

Jennifer rolls her eyes. "How do like your new wand Natalie?"

"Eh, it's fine." Natalie replies, holding it gently. "I miss my old one though."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Natalie nods.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of red, through the window. I jerk my head over, I could have sworn I just saw...

I spot Brian and Irene walking by. Irene catches my eye and waves. I motioned her to come in. She happily opens the door and takes the spot next to me.

Irene has gotten a bit more tanned since the last time we saw her. She also looks like she's grown a couple centimeters taller. Why do I feel like I'm the only one not growing? Even Melanie and Milly are taller than me! This is totally not fair!

Brian pokes his head in. "Are you sure you don't want to sit with me and my friends?"

Irene snickers. "Duh." Then she double takes. "Wait...what friends...?"

"Lewis, some other Gryffindor guys. Why?"

"Just leave." Irene says waving off.

Brian rolls his eyes. "Alright. See you later."

Irene shrieks. "Ehhh! I'm so excited!" she exclaims, handing out hugs to each of us. Wow, she's such a contrast to Brian.

Tamara widens her eyes suddenly. "Oh yeah..." she turns to Natalie. "Did he...like tell you yet?"

"Tell me what...?" Natalie questions.

Tamara sighs. "Guess not...figures..."

"What...?"

Irene smiles. "Is it maybe a confession?! I mean, out of all of you, he looks at Natalie the strangest." Natalie blinks.

"I know right?! What is wrong with that guy?!" Jennifer immediately jumps in.

"Um?" Tamara tries to cut in.

Irene snickers. "Tell me about it! I've been asking that my entire life!"

Natalie just looks uncomfortable now, Tamara stopped trying to interject, seeing that this conversation is going to last a while. "Can we change the subject?" Natalie finally speaks up.

"I mean seriously! He's a Gryffindor and he can't even stand up and tell a girl that he likes her! How lame can he get?" Jennifer pushes, completely unaware of Natalie.

"Trust me, he's way more pathetic than he seems and he seems quite pathetic to begin with." Irene says.

I turn to Natalie and Tamara, who are just sitting there waiting for the conversation to end. Tamara raises an eyebrow. "This is going to take a while, isn't it?"

I nod. "Yup..."

* * *

"I'll see you guys later." Irene waves, heading over to the the first years.

Natalie turns to Jennifer. "Did you _really _have to talk about him the entire trip?!"

"What? It's true though! He should totally man up." She replies, jokingly nudging Natalie on the sides. This makes her extend her distance from Jennifer, pushing Tamara and I in between.

"Oh come on! Is that really necessary?!" I say.

"Yes." she replies.

I turn to Tamara. "What does he really need to tell her anyway?"

Tamara bites her lip. "I think it's best if he tells her first."

The Great Hall is the same as always; I separate with the others and head over to the Slytherin table. People are just starting to come in and the place is already full of murmurs of conversation. All of my friends have gotten a little bit taller. This is so unfair! Why am I so short!? At the table, I spot Keith and Helda. I sit in between them as usual.

"Hey guys." I greet them. Keith smiles and waves at me. He continues chatting with his friends and ignoring his fangirls as usual.

"Hey Michelle! How was your summer?" Helda asks.

"It was good. Until I saw a recent news article." I complain.

"You mean the dude who just broke out of Azkaban?" Helda questions. I nod in response. "Who wouldn't? He was the one who got you petrified and kidnapped Milly. Not to mention what happened in our first year." She says.

"Don't remind me of the pain I went through just to try to get Milly back." I groan. Flashbacks of the date with Lewis randomly come up into my head. I shake my head to get the thoughts out.

"Oh yeah, we have a new student. Again." Helda mentions. That gets my attention. Is it the red haired guy I saw at Diagon Alley and earlier on the Hogwarts Express?

"Is it the-" I begin to say but get cut off by Professor Dumbledore, asking for attention.

"Welcome students, to a new school year! I hope you've all had a great summer. Whatever happened last year, let's put it behind us. Let's sort the new first years into their new houses shall we? Bring them in!" He says and waves his hand in the air. The big doors open majestically. Professor McGonagall guides the first years into the Great Hall with a long piece of parchment in hand.

Once they reach the front of the room, the first years begins to look nervous. I guess they're not just nervous about being sorted into their houses. They're nervous because of all the older students watching, judging by how they won't meet our eyes, keep looking at each other and are fidgeting with their robes. At the end of the line, I see the red hair boy. He sticks out like a sore thumb with his hair and eyes. Professor McGonagall grabs the Sorting Hat and a stool. She places the Hat on the stool. The Sorting Hat opens its' mouth, shocking some of the first years. I'm guessing they're Muggle-borns.

After the Sorting Hat finishes its sorting song for the year, Professor McGonagall announces that we have a new third year transfer student from Durmstrang Institute. When she is about to call him up, the Sorting Hat speaks up again, getting the attention off all the students.

"_Beware, for things are about to occur_

_Missing, dead, danger stirs _

_Beware for it acts at unexpected times, _

_It acts when it thinks time is prime."_

Dead? People are actually going to die this year? Not just missing...I clench my fists. I have a feeling the William dude has something to do with it. When is he going to stop making our lives here at Hogwarts troublesome? I look at the first years' expressions. I pity them. Now they think Hogwarts is a bad, dangerous place to stay.

Professor McGonagall clears her throat and gains the attention again from the students.

"Aidan Matthews. May you please come up to get sorted?" She announces. At the back of the line, the red hair boy, now confirmed to be Aidan Matthews walks up to the podium where the Sorting Hat is.

"He's cute." I comment in a whisper to Helda. She nods, agreeing with me. Keith must have heard me because he turns around to look at me, with a weird look on his face. I smile nervously at him. Then he turns back to the front.

"_Slytherin!_"

All the people in my house, including me, claps for our newest addition. He casually takes an empty seat not too far away from us. Yeah, it's definitely the same person I bumped into the other day. He's the one who turned into Knockturn Alley. Does he do dark magic...Or just like Jennifer when we first met; who mistakenly went into Knockturn Alley.

"Hey man. Welcome to Slytherin." Keith greets him with a smile. Aidan just completely ignores him. "Okay..." Keith frowns and turns back to his friends, while the Tanmirers are glaring at Aidan for being rude to their `Prince Charming'. Again he ignores them and just looks bored.

"Lee, Irene." Professor McGonagall calls. I turn my attention back to the front. Irene goes up to the front and sits down, looking nervous. Professor McGonagall sets the Sorting Hat on her head. "_Ravenclaw!_" The Ravenclaw table cheers and claps for their new house member. At the Gryffindor table, I see Brian looking relieved. Ha ha, he must not want his little sister spilling embarrassing stuff about him.

Professor Dumbledore stands up from his seat and calls for attention. "As much as I would like to start the year on a lighter note I cannot...You may all know, except for the first years of course, a criminal has escaped from Azkaban just a few nights ago. The Aurors are doing their best to capture him. However since his capture is due to...the involvement of some students, he will stop at nothing for revenge." Gee, isn't that great to hear something like that.

"So the Faculty and I have decided to strictly enforce rules for your safety. First, all of you must be back at your dorms at 5:00 pm _sharp_. All the Prefects and your Head Professor will escort all the students to the Great Hall for supper and back to your dorms. You must not go out of your dorm and common room without any teacher with you. When you go to the washroom during class, you must have a partner with you. You must have your wand with you at _all_ times. If you happen to see the criminal, do not approach him. He's taken lives before, and won't hesitate to take yours. Even the Professors must be on guard. You all must abide to all these rules, do you understand?" He asks.

"Yes, Headmaster." All the students say in unison.

"Anyways, let's get on a brighter note. Our Keeper of the Keys and Grounds, Hagrid has come back from doing something for the Ministry. Please welcome him back warmly. Now that is all. Enjoy the feast!"

Dinner is served by the house elves as usual. I chat with Helda. As we talk I accidentally kick someone under the table. Aidan suddenly turns to me, revealing his grey eyes behind his red hair. They look hard and cold.

"Oh. Sorry about that." I apologize. He just turns away from my gaze. Well. Isn't that rude?

* * *

After we finish eating dinner, we have to make a single file line to get escorted out of the Great Hall. Oh yeah, now that I think about it, what happens to Quidditch if these rules are enforced?

We soon arrive and I walk up to the dormitory with Helda.

"So what did you do this summer?" I ask.

"Not much, stayed home most of the time. You?"

"Basically the same as you, my parents were too busy this summer to take us anywhere." I say. "I read a couple of Muggle books though. They're quite interesting."

"Yeah, I did that too." she says. "What electives did you choose?"

"Care for Magical Creatures and Divination."

"Oh same, but I guess we'll be in the same classes."

Just then a Prefect from the outside of the door says that's it's time for 'Lights out'. "Talk to you more tomorrow?" I say.

"Yeah, good night." says Helda as she climbs into bed.

"Good night."

* * *

I walk into the Transfiguration classroom and go to sit next to Natalie. Before I get the chance to talk to her Professor McGonagall walks into the classroom.

"Welcome back to another year of Transfiguration. Today we will be learning how to turn teapots into tortoises. I have placed a tortoise in front of each person for you to try on. The incantation is testollam and you must wave your wand exactly three times. If you need reference, the spell is on page two of your textbooks. You may begin."

I wave my wand over the tortoise three times and say "_testollam". _The tortoise starts to breathe steam which according to the book, is not supposed to happen. I look over to see that Natalie's is doing the same thing.

Soon Professor McGonagall announces that class is over and that we are to perfect the spell for homework.

We all walk out of the classroom with Professor McGonagall behind us to make sure we get to class safely.

"So what do you think the Sorting Hat was talking about?" I ask as I finish up my potions essay.

* * *

"Well the first line just says that dangerous things are about to happen." says Natalie.

"'Missing, dead, danger stirs', I guess means that people are going to go missing and some may even die. The last part is basically a repeat of the first line."

"The next line just means that you can't expect when it happens." Jennifer says.

"And the last means it acts when it's the best time." I conclude.

"Do you think this is about the William dude?" asks Jennifer.

"Well, he did try doing it last year. He might try it again." Natalie says.

Jennifer looks hesitant. "Do you think this has anything to do with his master?"

"I don't know, kidnapping and killing might be his instructions from him." I say.

"What about the mutant pelican?" Jennifer asks.

"I guess, maybe he's another follower." Natalie guesses.

Tamara shrugs. "He could be. It's possible"

"Hey, do you think there's something weird about the new student?" I ask.

"Not really, I haven't really thought about it. Why?" Natalie asks.

"Well, he completely ignored Keith and I when we tried talking to him." I say.

"Maybe he hasn't adjusted yet." Tamara suggests.

"Remember when I bumped into someone at Diagon Alley? It was him." I say.

"Well, what's so strange about that? He could have gone there to get his school supplies." Jennifer questions.

I knit my brows together. "In Knockturn Alley? What school supplies could he get there?"

"That is a bit strange but it doesn't mean he's involved in dark magic." Natalie says.

"Yeah, I went in there and I'm not involved in dark magic." Jennifer states.

I nod. "True."

Tamara shrugs. "We'll see, you've only just met him."

"Yeah, I guess so." I say.

"We should start working, our curfew is earlier. We can't work as late as before." Natalie says, flipping open her potions book.

I take out my Charms reading when I notice Aidan walk into the library. He looks around like he doesn't want anyone to see what he's doing and walks through a couple of aisle of books. Soon I notice that he comes out again but this time heads toward the restricted section of the library. Madam Pince doesn't seem to notice him. He looks back and forth like he did when he first walked in and walks behind one of the shelves. He's blocked from my view. I turn back to my reading but I'm not actually reading. Why would he go into the restricted section? He most likely knows that it's restricted since he walks around like he doesn't want to be seen. What could he be looking for? Just then someone waves their hand in front of my face.

"Hey, you've been looking at that page for over ten minutes." says Jennifer. "And I know you read faster than that."

"Oh, I'm just a bit tired." I say. "Can't concentrate."

"Okay then." she says, then goes back to her work.

I look back to the restricted section and see Aidan quickly walk out. He isn't carrying a book so he must have only went in to read something. But what? He walks out of the library and I'm back to staring at my book. I just can't think of a reason of why he would need to read something in there.

Could he really be involved with dark magic? Is he involved in what the Sorting Hat said? Hopefully I'm wrong.

"Hey," Tamara says, shaking my shoulder gently. "Time to go."

"Oh okay," I say as I pick up my books and walk out of the library, my thoughts still running through my head.

* * *

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	2. Tea, Hagrid and Conclusions

Hi! It's time for another chapter! We hope you enjoy it!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES. **_

* * *

_**Jennifer's POV**_

I walk into the Divination classroom and sit down next to Tamara. I wonder what this class is going to be like. If Divination is predicting the future then couldn't we predict what is on our exams? I guess I'm going to have to wait until class starts to figure out. Just then Professor Trelawney walks into the room.

"Welcome to Divination. This year we will be learning how to read tea leaves, read fire-omens and use crystal balls. There is not much that I can teach you as only people with the Inner Eye, also known as Seers are the only ones who can truly master the subject. People have been successful even without being a Seer though, so it is possible to learn it well to some extent. Today we will start with reading tea leaves also known as Tessomancy. Everyone has a cup in front of them full of tea. I want you to sit down, drink it till only the remains of the leaves are left, add water and mix it with your left hand. After drain your cup. In your copy of _Unfogging the Future_, pages five and six are patterns that may occur in your tea cup. Take the teacup of the person sitting next to you and attempt to predict their future. You may now begin.

I follow Professor Trelawney's instructions and turn to Tamara.

"So who's first?" I ask.

"I guess I'll try yours first." Tamara says, taking my cup. She looks at my cup while referring to the book. "Well, I can clearly see a club which means an attack. On the side I see a skull which means there's danger in your path. That can't be good..."

"I hope this is wrong..." I say, could this really be true? Can you really figure out your future with tea?

"Yeah, I hope so too." she says. "Try mine."

I take her cup and look inside. "I see a cross which means trials and sufferings and a falcon which means a deadly enemy." I say.

"That doesn't sound any better..." she mutters, taking it from me to look herself.

"Yeah, hopefully this is wrong." I say.

"Hey, does this part kind of look like a cat to you?" asks Tamara as she looks at my cup again.

"Yeah, it does. What's that supposed to mean?" I look through the pages till I find it.

_Cat: Meaning varies, examples include: evil, perils in the night, honor, fresh changes, mysteries. _

"That could be good or bad..." I say. Is something really going to happen this year? I was hoping this would be a peaceful year. Looking at this, maybe not.

Just then Professor Trelawney walks to the front of the room.

"Time for your next class, put your cups on the side shelf and line up so I can take you to your next class."

We put our cups to the side and line up. I really hope our predictions are wrong.

I hate the new rules at Hogwarts; I feel like I'm back in kindergarten, constantly needed to be monitored. I bet the first years think that Hogwarts is so overrated, I mean, might as well stay at home with a babysitter with their eyes glued to you.

I was walking in single file along with the rest of the Hufflepuffs when the person behind me steps on my heel, causing me to trip. Resulting in a domino effect on everyone in front of me.

Great. I bet everyone thinks I'm just a big klutz now. I turn to glare at the person behind me, who offered me their hand. It's Collin. I narrow my eyes at him as he helps me up. "You never change. Do you?" I question, dusting off my robes.

"Hey, it's not entirely my fault! You were the one walking so slowly." he states. Before I can defend myself, our Prefect walks over and tells us to shut it. Collin shoots me a smile, knowing he's won. Damn him.

It was my first time talking to him this year, I guess I just got a bit distracted. Like I said, he doesn't look like he's changed a bit. His voice though, it has gotten a bit deeper, making him almost sound a bit more mature. I mentally laugh at my own thought. Mature? I know that's not happening anytime soon. If it does...it might even creep me out. I don't see Collin as someone mature. I just don't.

Bianca nudges me. "Hey, lay off the death glares. The first years are looking. You want to set an bad example? Death glares aren't a good example! Especially for Hufflepuffs!"

"Yeah, well he is making it very difficult. That was the fourth time he's accidentally stepped on my heel! I highly doubt they are accidents anymore." I mutter.

"You do seem a bit distracted." Bianca points out. "Did something happen in Divination?"

I quickly shake my head. "No. It's...it's just the new rules. Still adjusting. You know." Bianca nods slowly in understanding.

Now as for Bianca, she's changed over the summer as well. Her brown hair that is normally in braids are out, waves draping over her shoulders. Though she sprouted a bit, I'm still taller than her. I hate being tall, it makes me feel like a freaking giant. Suddenly I feel self conscious.

Bianca gives me a weird look. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"What?" I reply, trying to act normal. She then kneels, making me look taller again.

"Why are you kneeling? Is your back hurting or something?" I say. I sigh and stand up straight as she does the same. So much for looking shorter.

"Oh come on." Bianca exclaims with a smile. "You aren't that tall!"

"Yes I am!" I push. Bianca just rolls her eyes. "Seriously! I'm like the same height as Collin! That's not normal!"

"He just hasn't started to bloom yet. He'll probably be taller than you by next year. I mean seriously, his voice has got lower; I'm not used to it."

I widen my eyes. "I know right?! It's almost scary hearing it come out of his mouth."

"I'm right here you know." I hear him say behind me. I roll my eyes at Bianca than turn to him.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know." I say, twitching a bit from hearing his voice. He narrows his eyes at me.

I turn to Bianca. "Puberty is scary." she just laughs.

"Welcome ter Care fer Magical Creatures. Fer the people who've forgot, I'm Hagrid. No need fer the Professor part, not used ter it. We'll be startin' with hippogriffs, half-eagle, half-horse. Hippogriffs are easily offended. So don' insult one unless yeh want that ter be the last thing yeh ever say. We don' want what happened many years ago, someone got injured an' almost had one of the hippogriffs executed. Horrible! We don' want that so be careful what yeh say. Let's call one out fer yeh ter see. Buckbeak!"

Just then an animal about the size of Hagrid, which is pretty big considering he's half-giant walks out of the Forbidden Forest. The creature is completely grey like the colour of steel but has orange eyes. Its front half is mostly eagle and the back half is mostly horse. It's pretty scary if you ask me.

"Now this is how yeh approach it. Yeh have ter let it make the first move, always let it make the first move. Ter them 's polite. After yeh bow, wait ter see what happens. If he bows back, yeh can go up ter 'im an' pet 'im, if not then yeh should slowly back away, avoid his claws. Remember not ter blink when bowin', they don' like blinking that much." While he's talking he demonstrates. After he gives it a treat.

"Now who would like ter try?" he asks. No one steps forward.

"Oh come on. No one?" Hagrid says with a frown and steps in front of our class. "Don' make me choose someone." Hagrid warns us. The bird thing is staring at me...it's kind of creeping me out right now..." Alright. I guess I'm choosing then."

"Ah! How 'bout yeh? The Hufflepuff girl with the side ponytail. What's yer name?" He points at me.

I blink. "Me?" I ask, pointing at myself.

"Yes, yeh." He chuckles. I turn around to see everyone at least five feet behind me, watching. Bianca has a big grin on her face and signals me to stay there. I narrow my eyes at her and mouth '_traitor!_'. Natalie is beside her with Zoey and Joey.

"My name is Jennifer." I answer him.

"Well that's a nice name. Come on now. Get over here." He urges me to come closer. I cautiously walk to where Hagrid is.

"Now let's see yeh try." says Hagrid "No need ter be afraid. He won' hurt yeh."

I cautiously walk up to the Hippogriff, scared I might offend it or something. It seems like a really proud creature with all the bowing and stuff. It makes the first move and I bow, waiting for it to respond. I keep my eyes wide open, but he doesn't do anything. What did I do wrong? What am I supposed to do now? My eyes are really starting to water from opening them for so long. Finally I see the creature bow.

"Good job," he says feeding it a treat. "That wasn't so hard was it? Now yeh can go fer a ride?"

"No, I'm okay." I insist. I want to stay as far away from it as possible, no offense.

"Come on, he won' bite." he says lifting me up onto its back. "Hold on."

I look around for something to grab onto but there's nothing there but a bunch of feathers. I guess that will have to do. Hopefully I don't pull it off or something. It would bite me then and that wouldn't be good.

"Off yeh go." says Hagrid as Buckbeak lifts off the ground. It lifts up high into the sky and soon I'm holding onto my life. This is worse then the Knight Bus. At least on the bus I can't fall to my death. It would be fun actually if I wasn't afraid of falling. The view is quite nice. We fly over the lake and all around the grounds and soon we finally land.

"Well done!" says Hagrid as he lifts me off Buckbeak. "Anyone else want ter try?"

No one steps forward.

"Nobody? Oh fine. Everyone can get started on their assignment. A diagram labeling the parts of a Hippogriff. Everyone can get started now."

"How could you leave me like that?" I say as I turn to Bianca and Natalie.

"Sorry, we thought you would notice that everyone else had stepped back." says Natalie.

"Yeah, how did you not notice?" asks Bianca.

"I was too busy worrying that he would pick me and what I would do if he did." I reply.

"That didn't work too well. It got you chosen." says Natalie.

"Yeah...Need to be more careful next time." I say. "I guess we should get started."

"Yeah, might be easier with the actually Hippogriff in front of us." says Bianca.

We soon finish and class is dismissed.

Thanks to the new rules at Hogwarts, nothing really interesting has happened the past few weeks. Sad I know. I walk down to the crowded Quidditch pitch courtyard to meet up with Natalie, Michelle and Tamara. Today is the day of the Quidditch tryouts. Finally something fun and interesting is happening.

"Hey." Michelle greets me.

"Hi." Natalie waves at me.

"Hey." Tamara also greets me.

"Hey guys." I greet them back.

"So excited for the tryouts. We have been in the dorms for far too long." Michelle says excitedly. I nod in agreement. It was so boring just staying in the dorms, doing homework and having nothing else to do. Not to mention, not being allowed to step outside of our dorms besides going to classes. We hear a crackling sound from the P.A system.

"Attention to all students who wants to try out for their house's Quidditch Team," Madame Hooch calls for our attention. All the students at the Quidditch Pitch stop to listen. "You may now enter the Quidditch Pitch. All of the students will line up where their team captain is standing. The captains will explain what to do during the tryouts. Thank you for listening." The crackling went through the P.A system once again before going back to silence, signalling that it's off.

Excited chatters breaks out through the courtyard. I'm not the exception.

"Yes! Finally!" I cheer. All four of us are very excited and I quickly walk to the Quidditch Pitch entrance with Tamara, Michelle, and Natalie in tow.

Gosh, a lot of first years are trying out this year. I'm not going to even guess why; they have to do something fun while they're here right?

As we walk to the Quidditch Pitch, I accidently step on the person in front of me. Well, not step _on_ them, more like their heel. They turn around to face me, I was half expecting it to be Collin...not going to lie. Instead Lewis stood in front of me. He looked...gosh...he looked so different.

What is happening to people?! Why is everyone growing so quickly?! Well not Michelle...but don't tell her that...Why am I the same height as most of the guys here? Some are even shorter than me! It's not fair.

"Oh thank goodness." I say. Lewis gives me a weirded out look, turning back and heading toward the Pitch.

At least he's taller than me. Is it even possible to grow that much in a couple months? Well, apparently it is. Luckily it didn't happen to me.

Oh shoot...I hope I didn't just jinx that...

"Typical." Someone mutters beside me; I twirl around to see Collin.

I narrow my eyes at him. "Are you stalking me or something?"

"Are you sure you're not stalking me? I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be me and not Lewis over there." He says with a crooked smile.

"Haha." I mutter to myself darkly.

I turn to Michelle and shake her arm. "Hey, have you seen Lewis? He's like a giant."

"Don't rub it in." She says. Okay, I'm guessing she's noticed.

I roll my eyes. "Hey, do you think that new kid is trying out too? What's his name again? Dan?"

"Where did you get Dan...?" asks Michelle.

I widen my eyes. "It's not Dan?! Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. What was it again..."

"Aidan." Natalie offers. Oh right...I knew that...

"No he probably isn't." Michelle says. "He's really...independent..."

"What do you mean by that?" I ask, curious by what she meant.

"He likes being alone. So I don't think he would join a sports team like Quidditch." She explains. Oh. Now that I think about it, when he first came here a few weeks ago he gave off the aura of, 'Leave me alone and stay the heck away from me'

For some reason Dan strangely reminded me of Wilma. Shoot, did I say Dan? I mean Aidan. Speaking of Wilma, I haven't seen her around recently. I can't even remember the last time I saw her.

"Hey, Natalie, where's Wilma these days? I haven't seen her around recently." I ask.

She shrugs. "I'm not sure. She's always busy with something. Whenever I catch her, she says she needs to find Keith."

"What's the deal with those two anyway?" I ask. She shrugs again.

"Alright all of you line up according to your houses for the tryouts!" The Ravenclaw Captain shouts. I say goodbye to Michelle, Tamara and Natalie, but not before wishing them luck for their tryouts. Although I doubt that they need it, not to be arrogant or anything like that, we did make it on the Quidditch team for the past two years. But then again we don't know how good the first years are.

I strain my head over the crowd; I see the Hufflepuff Captain standing a few feet away from the Slytherin Captain. That's a weird choice, standing next to a house our house dislikes. But oh well.

"Are all of the Hufflepuff students that want to tryout all here?" Franklin Bennet, the Hufflepuff Team Captain asks. We all look at the Quidditch Pitch entrance to see if there are more Hufflepuff students coming. Seeing that the students running in are just Gryffindor students, we turn our attention back to the Captain.

"Alright, welcome to the Quidditch Pitch! Today is the day to see if you guys have what it takes to be on the Quidditch Team. I see most of the team members from last year. But remember, just because you made it last year, doesn't mean you're on the team this year. It just means you have more experience." He starts to lecture. From that sentence, the first years begin to look even more determined.

"I'll explain this quick. To see the potential, we're going to have a small game, except the Seekers. The time limit on these games are about 1 hour. Every time, we switch the players. For the ones who didn't get to play today, we will do it next time. The people who wants to try out as Seekers, will do it at another time. Don't worry about the Slytherins by the way. They're going to be too busy doing the same thing as we are in the selection process." Franklin assures the students.

All of us sneak a peek at the Slytherins. They look pretty serious...I'm sure Michelle and Keith are going to get the Beaters' positions once again. I just hope that the younger students don't get too scared of the house. But then again, everyone here knows the Slytherins are very aggressive and competitive when it comes to winning something. Then it gets very scary, and someone would always for sure, end up in the Hospital Wing.

"We need to hurry. The curfew is in two hours and there's plenty of you guys who want to try out." Franklin urges. "Go to the edge of the pitch and we'll decide who's going first." He directs us. All of the Hufflepuffs quickly run to the edge while the Slytherins are just walking leisurely to their designated spot.

"How many first years and second years are here?" The Captain asks with clipboard in hand. Where did he get that? I didn't see him holding it before. He guides fourteen of them onto the field and the rest of us walk off to the side to watch. The first group goes and soon they switch. From here I can see the captain checking and putting X's on his clipboard. I wonder which people are going to make it. The next set of people go and he continues to write on his clipboard. Finally, after a while, it's my turn to play.

"Third and fourth years line up please." say the captain.

We line up and I notice that the line isn't that long. I guess the people who wanted to tryout before didn't want to anymore after the years. I get on my broom and fly into the air. I get into position waiting for the Quaffle to be thrown in the air. The Hufflepuff captain walks to the center with Quaffle in hand.

"Remember to stay in our boundaries, Hufflepuffs! If we do, then the Slytherins won't bother us." He reminds us, pointing at a white painted line, meters away from us. All of us nod in understanding. "You guys ready?" He asks, getting ready to throw.

"Yeah." All of us answer. Then he throws the Quaffle up in the air, as high as he can. The game starts. Collin from the opposite team immediately goes for it.

I immediately fly after Colin who quickly makes his way to the makeshift goal hoops. He throws the Quaffle at the far right hoop to score. But luckily the Keeper, who's a fourth year and I can't remember his name, managed to save it in time. Then he throws the Quaffle up in the air and hit it with the end of his broom towards me. I catch the Quaffle and it hit my chest, knocking the air out of me for a few seconds. Oww, that hurt! But I immediately snap out of it once I saw Beaters from the other side coming towards me.

I keep the Quaffle close to my chest and I fly fast to the opposite team's hoops, trying to avoid the Bludgers going my way. I duck down, avoiding a Bludger to the head. It grazes my hair. Whoa. That was too close. I continue to fly and soon I make it to the goal posts. I score. I continue to play and score four more goals. I hope it's enough to get a check on Franklin's clipboard. We're told to stop and the next group starts to play.

Soon Quidditch tryouts are over and we're told that the results will be posted soon. I find Michelle, Natalie and Tamara and we start to walk out of the Quidditch Pitch together.

"So, do you think you made it?" I ask.

"Maybe, I'm not sure." says Natalie.

"Same." says Michelle and Tamara.

"Want to go to the library to do homework? We got a lot today." says Natalie.

"Sure." says Michelle.

Soon we walk into the library and sit down at our usual table. We all take out our homework.

"Remember when I asked you about Aidan that day when we were doing our homework?" asks Michelle.

"Yeah," I say. "Why?"

"When you three were doing homework, I saw him sneak into the restricted section." says Michelle in a part-whisper.

"Why would he do that?" asks Tamara.

"I don't know, but I find it kind of strange." says Michelle.

"Maybe he didn't know it was restricted?" I say.

"Yeah, I thought of that too but he looked like he didn't want to be seen." says Michelle.

"Well, some students actually have managed to sneak into that section but they're usually not for evil or dark purposes." says Natalie.

"True, but you can't be sure what he looked at. He didn't walk out with a book." says Michelle.

"Did you see which section he walked into?" asks Tamara.

"Yeah, I think so." replies Michelle. "I couldn't see the sign from here but I saw which row."

"Then let's go check." I say.

"Won't Madame Pince notice us?" asks Natalie.

"We'll just go close enough to see the signs." I say.

"Come on, then." says Michelle.

We walk just close enough to see the signs. Michelle points to the third row of bookshelves and I looked at the sign. '_Dark Magic, Curses, Jinxes and Spells'_.

We quickly walk back to our table.

"Well, could that really mean Aidan's evil or something?" I ask.

"I guess it could be." says Michelle.

"Then aren't we assuming that all the students who don't come for their first year are involved with dark magic?" I say.

"Well we're not really so sure about Wilma though." says Tamara.

"We could be wrong about Aidan too then. He could have went into that row and turned into another row." says Natalie.

"Maybe, but he also came out of the same row too." says Michelle.

"Might be his way of not being seen." says Tamara.

"Yeah, it could be the spot where he's least likely to be seen by Madame Pince." says Natalie.

"It's probably nothing," says Tamara. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions."

"Well, yeah. I guess." says Michelle.

"Come on, let's get back to our homework." says Natalie. "It's getting late."

"Okay." says Michelle.

I turn to my Divination homework but what Michelle has said has got me to start thinking. Could Aidan really be involved in dark magic? Is he a Death Eater? I continue to think till Natalie snaps me out of my thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks. "Usually when I give you your rice krispies you get all excited."

I look to her and see the bag of rice krispies in her hand.

"Oh, nothing much." I say as I take the bag. "Thanks for the rice krispies."

"No problem" says Natalie as she gets back to her homework.

I get back to my homework as well but the whole Aidan think still drifts back into my mind.

* * *

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	3. Mind Reading, Hobbies and Avoidance

Hi! It's Thursday so it's time for another chapter. We hope you enjoy :)

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

"Did your Divination reading make any sense?" I ask Joey and Zoey.

"Not really, it just said that I'm going to be really lucky and happy." says Zoey. "Hasn't happened."

"Same," replies Joey. "Though I did find a sickle on the floor after it predicted that I would have 'unexpected riches'.

"My cup predicted surprises, a mysterious past and death." I say.

"Well we're not Seer's, we could be wrong." says Zoey. "But apparently Joey's the best Seer."

I laugh. "So what are we studying next?"

"Charms?" asks Joey.

We take a couple minutes studying as we always do; a couple Ravenclaws come in and out. That's when Zoey huffs out a breath. "Gosh. We seriously need a life..."

Joey laughs. "We? Why you do this all day?"

"You get what I mean." she says, rolling her eyes a bit. Then she points at me. "I mean look at Natalie. She has all the homework done for the past four months."

I just stare at her blankly. She laughs and holds her hands up in classic surrender. "Okay. Okay. I might have exaggerated a bit. Okay maybe a lot. But seriously." she shoves me lightly. "You need to take it easy. There's no rush."

"Actually there is." Joey says with a smirk in the corner of his mouth.

Zoey blinks. "Huh?"

"If I don't finish everything beforehand, Jennifer with seriously murder me." I say, rolling my eyes. "She takes her rice krispies really seriously."

"You should seriously stop feeding that girl...that's not healthy..."

Joey chuckles. "Maybe Jennifer should be murdering you rather than Nat." Zoey punches his arm. "Fine. Fine. I'll shut up."

Zoey turns back to me. "How much do you make her anyway?"

I sit there stunned for a bit. "If you're expecting me to count...oh gosh...it just hurts my head thinking about it..."

"Didn't Jennifer say that she will find you some hobbies, or something?" Zoey points out as Joey obediently continues revising from his book. "What did she find you?"

I stay silent. Zoey lets out a breath. "Okay. That didn't go anywhere..." Then her eyes suddenly brighten; she turns back to me and stares at me creepishly.

"Uh...what?" I say. Zoey just giggles. Why do I have a bad feeling about this...

Joey just looks at her for a moment, as if trying to figure out what she is thinking. He raises his eyes like Zoey had just sent him a mental message of her thoughts. Joey starts to gather his stuff. "I'm out." he says, casually leaving.

"What's going on?" I question hesitantly. Zoey looks to be having trouble keeping her laughs to a minimum. "Zoey, you're scaring me right now..."

"Okay. Okay." She exclaims between fits of laughter. I just sit there waiting patiently for her laughter to die down. Seriously, what can possibly be so funny? "I can't remember..did I tell you yet?"

I raise my brow at her. "Tell me what?"

Do I even want to know?

Zoey rests her chin in the palm of her hand. "How you noticed anything off this year?"

"Sure." I shrug. "A lot of things. With all the new rules and everything, Hogwarts as a whole has been different."

"That's it? Just the new rules?"

I think about it for a moment. I nod slowly. "Pretty much. Why?"

Zoey just shakes her head with a devilish grin on her face. From the few years I've known her, I can tell that whenever she smiles like that it's something that I'm not going to like.

"Actually I haven't seen Wilma around lately..." It then suddenly occurs to me that we kind of left her hanging on the edge last year. With everything happening, we just lost track of time.

I start to gather my things, maybe it's about time I talked to her. Plus, I don't really want to be sitting here with Zoey all...I don't even know. At the moment, anywhere is better than here with Zoey.

Well, maybe not anywhere...

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Zoey says, latching onto my wrist. "Where do you think you're going. We were talking!"

"Talking?" I question. "I was just sitting here with you staring at me like..." I don't even know how to describe her expression. Kind of like a fangirl meeting her biggest inspiration? No. That's not it. I can't put my finger on it but I'm sure I've seen it before. When... When...

"I can't believe you're so clueless right now!" Zoey exclaims in mock offence. "Are you pretending to be or what?"

"No." I answer simply. "I seriously don't know what you're talking about. And if it causes Joey to suddenly get up and leave plus, you to be staring at me like that...I doubt it'll be good on my part."

Zoey looked shaken up for a moment there. "Wow. You're good. Are you a mind reader or something?"

"I wish." I mutter sarcastically. "If I were I would know what you were talking about, now would I?"

Zoey laughs again. "True that."

"Now. Are you going to tell me or am I going to go? I need to talk to Wilma." Or maybe I should just take this perfectly good opportunity to just bolt.

"Fine. I'll tell you." Well, too late now.

Zoey leans back and takes a moment to find her words. "Have you by any chance, lately been feeling like you're being watched?"

Now that's not something you hear very often. I just stare at her blinking. If only there was a Zoey translator. It would make my life so much easier. She should really start just getting to the point. I mean, what she's doing drives people mad.

"Uh. No?" I answer, more like a question than an answer.

She widens her eyes. "You seriously missed every single look Brian has been giving you?"

Shoot. She said it. I wish I just left when I had the chance...I knew I wasn't going to like it. Why is Zoey always up on the Brian thing anyway?

"Nope." I say, trying desperately to leave this conversation. If only it's just as easy as clicking the red 'X' on the MSN bar thing for Muggles. But no. "I'll see you later. I need to find Wilma."

"Wait." She says, stopping me in my tracks again. Dang it. Why did Joey have to leave? I could have at least had him distract her for me. "Did something like...happen?"

She widens her brown at me. "Oh my god...did...did you...?"

"No!" I immediately say. Whatever it is, it has to do with Brian. I quite frankly haven't really talked with him much this year. Maybe a simply 'Hey' or "Hi' in the halls, but that's it. Thank goodness for me anyway. "Can I go now?"

She bites the corner of her lip a bit. "Fine. We'll talk later."

Instead of finding Wilma, I end up bumping into Joey. He smiles when he sees me. "Did she tell you?"

"You knew about this?" I gape at him.

"Of course. You've just always had your head buried in a book or something to notice." He shrugs. "Plus you probably wouldn't like it so I didn't say anything. Not like you'll believe me anyway."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Have you seen Wilma around?"

"Why?"

"I need to talk to her." I say with a shrug. "It was also an excuse to get rid of Zoey."

Joey shakes his head. "Haven't seen her. Check the library or something."

"Okay. See you later."

Joey ruffles my hair a bit. "Bye Nat."

My head is still a fuzz the entire way to the library. If Wilma isn't there, I don't even know what I'll do next. Probably make some more rice krispies for Jennifer. Maybe Zoey is right. Maybe I really do need some hobbies.

I just don't have the time for hobbies. The only thing I have time for is pleasure reading, that's it. It's sad but, hey, what can I do? I have to keep my grades up. Then again, it's something everyone should do.

As for the Brian thing, god I don't even want to think about that. I'm sure Zoey is exaggerating; I mean she did say I finished all my homework with the next four months, which is not true.

I only finished homework for the past three months and three weeks.

Thanks to my never ending train of thought, I find myself bumping, this time literally, into someone's back.

"Oh sorry." I say shaking my head a bit. I'm seriously losing it today.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it" a familiar voice assures. Oh shoot. You're kidding me right? I look up to see none other than Brian. Out of everyone, I had to bump into him. Yay.

"You're looking for Wilma?" He asks.

I knit my brows together. "How'd you know..?"

"Zoey told me." He says simply. Oh great. Let's hope Zoey didn't tell him anything else. "She went to talk to Keith about something."

"Oh." I answer.

He just nods. "Yeah."

Fortunately for me, someone behind me calls his name, motioning him over. He nods their way and turns to me. "I'll see you later. I actually have to tell you something later." He says, stepping aside and placing a hand on my shoulder. "See you."

I hope later doesn't come anytime soon.

"What's wrong?" Tamara asks me suddenly.

"What do you mean?" I question.

She blinks at me. "You're acting odd. You're constantly looking behind your back."

"Are you looking for someone?" Michelle offers. I just shake my head, trying to focus on the words in front of me. I'm re-reading the same line for the fifth time; I just can't seem to find meaning in it.

"Or are you hiding from someone?" Jennifer says, between bits of her rice krispie.

I snap my book closed, clearly this is not distracting me as much as it should be. Suddenly Jennifer, Michelle and Tamara are being...Zoey-ish and I already have to worry about her.

"Oh yeah." Jennifer says like a lightbulb just popped above her head. "Here. I have a list of possible hobbies for you." she continues, digging in the pocket of her robes.

She pulls out a strip of spearmint gum, a marble, a paperclip, a hair tie, another rice krispie and a candy wrapper before pulling out a crinkled looking sheet of parchment. She takes a second and tries to smooth it out with her hands before handing it to me. "Here."

I take it curiously and start reading her neatly printed handwriting, as it gets farther down the list, the writing looks more sloppy and rushed, but still readable. I raise my eyebrows at her.

"What kind of hobbies are these?!"

"What?!" She exclaims, stuffing everything back in her pockets. "Hobbies are hobbies. It's just as long as you enjoy doing them."

Tamara takes the list from my hand and reads it herself. She raises her own brow at Jennifer. "Really? Ghost hunting?"

"Oh right..." Jennifer says putting the pieces together. "I don't think that will work in the wizard world..."

Michelle takes the piece of parchment and reads it herself. "Do you seriously think Natalie with consider collecting various types of frogs?"

"She can!" Jennifer pushes. "I mean who knows! She can have a love of frogs! Plus, haven't you ever heard of 'The Princess and the Frog'? Oh right...you're a pure-blood...Still. A princess once kissed a frog and it turned into her prince charming! It can happen to Natalie! She needs like a social life. No offence." She quickly adds.

"Why did the princess kiss the frog anyway?" Michelle asks, looking disgusted.

"It doesn't matter." Tamara says. "Natalie isn't collecting frogs."

"Why would I be desperate enough to kiss them anyway?" I say. "And I do have a social life. I'm talking to you aren't I?"

"Just try collecting frogs...I mean who knows...It could be fun..." Jennifer continues to urge. I quickly take the parchment from Michelle. What else is there besides ghost hunting and collecting frogs?!

"Seriously." Michelle says. "Why would a princess kiss a frog?! And for how long? Don't tell me they pretty much made out..."

Tamara rolls her eyes. "The princess kissed the frog to have an excuse to use up an entire bottle of mouthwash." she says sarcastically.

"Did they though? Did the princess like...make out with a frog?" Michelle wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Oh god. I bet the frog had bad breath...can frogs even use mouth wash?"

"Oh good question..." Jennifer points out. "I mean, I don't know...I think it would kill the frog so I don't suggest trying..."

"Moving on." Tamara finishes. She turns to me "Find anything you're maybe interested in?"

Michelle shakes her head. "Whatever you do I don't mind. Just don't tell me the story of the princess and the frog." she says, rubbing her temples gently.

"They actually tell that story to kids." Jennifer says with a laugh.

"They what?!" Michelle closes her eyes. "I'm not even going to ask."

"How about this?" I ask, pointing to the one at the very bottom.

"Natalie, this hobby is not working out for you..." Zoey observes.

Considering most of the hobbies on the her list were things I wouldn't ever do, I choose the most...normal one I guess.

Not going to lie though, it's not exactly the whole reason. Well you see, most of the hobbies she offered required a lot of moving. Not that I'm lazy or anything...though sometimes I am, but come on, everyone is at some point in their lives!

Though I don't think I'm the best at poetry, nor do I think I ever will be. I figured, why not give it a shot?

I can easily just sit in my dorm and just write away, and if Zoey asks me what I'm doing, I don't have to say homework like I do every other time. Which, in her eyes is progress, which is good.

It also gives me an excuse to not be out and about in Hogwarts, where Brian can find me. Yeah, I know, it just sounds utterly pathetic, I get it.

Try being in my shoes in this situation. I mean, ever since the beginning of the year, Brian has been giving me weird glances. Glances might not ever be the right word matter of factly. He's just been looking at me differently. Not in a 'there's something on her face' or the 'maybe I should ask her about next week's homework but I'm not sure' look.

What makes it worse is that whatever the look is, I can't for the life of me pinpoint what that guy is thinking. That's not saying a lot though, for the most part I don't know what guys are thinking. The closest I have is Joey, and it's something I'm not ashamed of. I mean, who needs to know how a guy's mind works all the time?

Apparently, I do at this moment.

I can't talk to Jennifer, Michelle or Tamara about it either. I will never admit this out loud, but I'm kind of scared how they will react. I don't think I can take it if they start telling me that he's just looking at me because he _likes _me. Like what Zoey keeps saying to me, and that's what makes me want to constantly bang my head on my desk.

I may not have much experience with guys but come one. He can't _like _me. That's completely...

"...you're thinking about Brian aren't you?" Zoey asks, with an amused expression on her face.

"What? No." I reply maybe a bit too quickly.

Zoey laughs. "Oh yeah. You totally were."

Did I tell you how annoying it is when people know you well enough to practically read your mind? I mean, sure, it can come in handy sometimes, but for the most part, it's just plain annoying.

First it was Joey, now it's Zoey. Who's next?

It better not be Brian...

Let's just hope only people I know that have 'oey' in their names can read my mind. Is there even a name other than Joey and Zoey? Wait is Toey a name?

Zoey nudges my side. "What were you thinking...? Did you finally come to the conclusion that Brian is head over heels for you?"

Why must my roommate be a hopeless romantic. Why...?

"Do you mind?" I ask, annoyance clearly in my voice. "I'm doing homework."

Zoey reaches over and snatches my Herbology from in front of me. "Hey!" I start to protest. "I was using that!"

She rolls her eyes at me. "Seriously, Natalie. You don't need to work on homework that is due months later. What are you trying to prove anyway? If you're trying to prove that you can work really hard, then congrats. Isn't this why Jennifer told you to start hobbies? What happened to writing Poetry? Yeah, leave it to you to choose the most boring hobby. No offence."

Wow. Is she seriously pissed at me for doing my homework? I reach over to take the book back from her, but she stirs it away from my grasp.

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm just bored." I admit, leaning back against the headboard of my bed. "I might as well be doing homework, it's the best way to kill time."

Zoey throws the book to her bed and lands on the soft surface. She turns back to me. "Why, what happened to poetry? If you decided it too boring to consider it a hobby I totally understand..."

"No it's not that. I just don't have anything to write about. Well, not anything but, I can't think of something." I say, shrugging.

"How about you write a poem about Brian?" She offers casually.

I just gape at her.

She shrugs innocently. "What?! You said you don't have anything to write about. Write about Brian! I mean, he's clearly taking over your mind right now."

I would leave right now if it weren't for the fact that this morning Tamara had told me Brian was looking for me. So it's either I put up with Brian or Zoey...

Zoey all the way.

I just send her a silent glare. Causing her to just double over laughing. I wait patiently for her to contain herself.

"Now you can't deny it." She simply says.

Maybe I should reconsider the Zoey and Brian thing.

Nope still Zoey.

"Whatever." I mutter darkly.

"Oh!" She says making the bed bounce up and down slightly. "What did you guys talk about when you bumped into each other? Since it clearly wasn't just a 'sorry' and 'it's okay'."

My eyebrows meet. "How did you...you were there?!" she giggles and nods. "Why didn't you come talk to me?! It could have saved me from dying of awkwardness."

"Oooooooooooo an awkward conversation I see? What did he want? He looked like he was asking you something."

I shift uncomfortably. "That's...none of your business."

"Now that I think about...you always seem to be in a rush lately..." She widens her eyes. "Oh my gosh! He confessed his undying love for you didn't he! And you're too shy to admit that you like him back, so you started avoiding him! Oh my gosh! Why didn't you tell me?!"

Is she serious right now?!

"NO!" I exclaim. "He just said we should talk sometime. That's it." I tell her. Oh shoot. Maybe I should have thought twice before..

"He wanted to _talk_!" Zoey practically squeals. "Oh my god. Natalie this is big!"

"How is it big?! He just wants to talk!"

"Exactly!"

"So?! You and Joey talk. Does that mean you're going to start dating?!"

"Actually we are dating." She says in a quieter voice.

I blink, think I heard her wrong. "What?"

"Joey and I. We are dating." She says flatly.

When did this start happening?! "_What?_" I repeat self consciously.

"Joey. And. I. Are. Dating." Zoey tries to clarify, making every word into a sentence.

"And why didn't you tell me...?" I say, still somewhat stunned. I mean, I knew they were close but I never would have thought they started dating. Oh great, this is just going to make things awkward for me. I don't want to end up as some third wheel.

Zoey gives me a small smile and shrugs. "You didn't tell me you like Brian."

"I don't like Brian!" I object. Seriously, how many times do I have to tell her that? "Now we're going to stop talking about it." I say, not even asking for her permission.

"But - "

"Zoey." I say in a don't-you-dare-push-it voice.

"Natalie." she says in the same tone.

I can't seem to get this out of my mind. They are dating! How awkward is that for me?

"So do you?" Zoey asks.

I stir back to her, noticing she's at the door with a couple of books in her arms.

"Sorry. What did you say?"

"I'm meeting Joey at the library." She says. "You should come with. You've been locked up in here with every spare second you have."

I immediately shake my head. No way was I being a third wheel. Not happening. "No thanks. I'm just going to continue doing my homework here." I look over at her bed, only to see that my book is no longer sitting on her duvet. I turn to her to see that she is holding my book in her hand.

"Come on. Let's go."

I groan. "I don't want to."

"Since when did you start hating the library?" She questions, still standing by the frame of the door.

"I don't." I answer simply. The expression on Zoey's face is asking why. "You know...there are...other houses there...including Gryffindors...Including...you know."

She rolls her eyes. "We're going."

"You can't make me." I say, and immediately regretted it after seeing the evil glint in her eyes.

"When did you start getting all manipulative?"

Zoey shrugs, sliding into the seat next to Joey. "I don't know. I kind of like it though."

I don't. She basically owns me now. As long as she doesn't make me talk to Brian...Knowing her, she most likely will though. Just saying.

"So what do you think, Joey?" Zoey ask, nudging his arm with her elbow.

He looks up from his book. "For what? Oh. Ohh. That. Please. Don't include me in that...just ask Nat." he finishes, getting back to his book.

"What's this about?" I question, crossing my arms on the table.

"Natian or Brianie?"

"Wait what?"

"You know, in Muggle TV shows they combine two names to make a couple name." She says in a 'well duh' voice. "What do you prefer for you and Brian?"

I blink at her blankly, which is something I've been doing a lot today so I noticed. "Thats for couples only. We. aren't. dating." I say as slow as possible. Not like it will drill into her head or anything but...

Zoey wiggles her eyebrows teasingly. "Yet. Just wait."

Joey's head pops up from his books. "Should I be worried?"

I open my mouth to object, but Zoey answers for me. "Nah. When they get together, maybe we can go on double dates or something."

I turn to look at Joey for support, he just shifts in his seat uncomfortably and goes back to his book. I would bang my head on the table but then people would start staring.

"So what's it going to be? Natian or Brianie? I personally vote Brianie!" I shake my head stiffly, I'm not even going to bother. Zoey huffs. "Fine. I'll ask Michelle, Jennifer and Tamara. Their right there anyway."

They are?! I immediately get up, gather my stuff and head over. Plopping myself in an empty seat. "Oh, hey." Michelle greets brightly.

I open my mouth to greet back, when a voice behind me cuts me off. "Hey Natalie."

Shivers go down my back from hearing the voice I didn't want to hear anytime soon. I was willing to put up with Zoey to avoid him. Brian.

* * *

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	4. Shock, Amnesia and Truth

Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter. Enjoy! xD

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Tamara's POV**_

I watch as Natalie stiffens when she turns around, seeing Brian with a small smile on his face. In the corner, I can hear Zoey start giggling away.

I'm just going to take a wild guess here and assume that the reason Natalie has been distant was to avoid Brian. I mean seriously, the look on her face when he spoke up was obvious.

I can't believe that he waited until now to tell her. I mean seriously! He had the entire summer to prep and he still hasn't done it? Well, it's not exactly something you can bring up in normal conversation, but still.

Jennifer has an amused look on her face as her gaze drifts between Brian and Natalie. She's just waiting for what's going to happen as she munches on a rice krispie.

Oh gosh, I'm not sure the library is the right place to do this with Jennifer around...wait is food even allowed in here?!

Brian bites on his lower lip, as if trying to find the words to explain. An awkward silence stretches between us. Michelle coughs. "So...What's up?"

More silence. Brian reached in the pocket of his robes, then got on one knee...

Five pairs of eyes widen at him. Joey still had his nose buried in his book until Zoey nudged him. Jennifer slams her hands on the table, making everything shake. She pulls herself up. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING DUDE?! SERIOUSLY! SHE CAN BARELY GET PAST THE FACT THAT ~"

Michelle clamps a hand over her mouth and gives her a stern look. She then pulls her arm away. "Do you seriously think she's going to marry you?!" Jennifer exclaims in a whisper yell. Though, there's honestly no point anymore. Everyone's eyes are already on us.

Brian blinks. "Uh. Excuse me?"

Jennifer turns to Natalie, grabbing both her hands and getting on her own knees. "Please! I beg you! Don't marry him! I mean you're cute together...but that's not the point! You're too young to have a ring on your finger! I mean, what would your parents think?!"

Yup. We are totally causing a scene. How are we still in here? Shouldn't we have been kicked out by now? I mean anywhere is better than here at the moment.

In the corner, Zoey seems to be shedding tears of happiness. I know. I know. Don't get me started on that. Please.

Joey looks to be in a constant debate with himself, wondering whether he should step in or not. At the moment, he is completely frozen.

Michelle sat there with her mouth dropped to the ground, gaping at Brian.

Luckily, Brian was the first one to break the spell. He chuckles and gets up. "I'm not proposing to Natalie. Calm down." He assures, helping Jennifer up, who is still on her knees looking up at Natalie. "I was just going to tie my damn shoe. We are only third-years! Why would you think I would propose to her?"

Jennifer's face turns tomato red. "Uh...I gotta go..." she says quickly. In a swift movement, she gathers her stuff and books and walks out of the library.

"Why are you crying?!" Natalie asks Zoey, as Joey passes her a tissue. Patting her shoulder soothingly.

"I actually thought he was going to confess! I mean seriously, how cute would that have been?" Zoey admits. "And when I saw him tie his shoe, I couldn't help but laugh at all your faces! You know me. When I laugh to hard my eyes starts to water like crazy. It's so damn annoying."

Brian's brows meet. "Confess...what?" He widens his eyes at her. "Wait...you know?"

"Of course I do! Everyone does besides Natalie. Why don't you confirm it for her? Be her Prince Charming for the day!" Zoey answers, giggling some more.

Brian looks at her confused. "Prince Charming?"

"Don't mind her." Michelle answers casually. "She's a hopeless romantic."

Brian answers by nodding his head slowly. Unsurely. He turns his attention back to Natalie. "So...uh...you know?"

Natalie gulps and just nods stiffly. I just notice that she has gone completely silent after our...little scene.

Brian lets out a sigh. "Oh god..." he mumbles under his breath. He takes Jennifer's seat and hesitantly places his larger hand over her smaller one.

Zoey looks like she's going to explode.

"Look...I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. It's not exactly something I tell someone everyday...I guess...I just didn't know how to. I'm sorry you had to find out this way." He apologizes, squeezing her hand slightly. "Can we just not let this make things awkward?"

Sorry, things have already got awkward. It got awkward a long time ago. I wonder if I should explain things...Clearly everyone is getting the wrong idea of where this is heading...

"Natalie...?" Brian asks softly, almost hesitantly.

Natalie clears her throat. "I...I...uh...I uh..."

"Answer the poor guy!" Zoey exclaims from behind. "You're killing him right now! You have any idea how hard it is to tell you...? Well, technically he didn't tell you...Do you have any idea how hard it is for him right now?!"

Can't we just get kicked out already...? The library really isn't the place for this...

"Hey Michelle! What are you doing?!" Keith exclaims, waltzing in happily. Really? At a time like this...Really?!

He narrows his eyes at Brian. "What's wrong with him? Why does it look like he's going to wet himself?" Michelle stabs him in the ribs with her elbow. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Hey Brian..do you have the~" Irene stops dead in her tracks. I mean who wouldn't... if you saw your brother holding a girl's hand with a twisted look on his face.

Keith nods his head slightly and points to Brian. "He's going to wet himself any minute now, isn't he?" Michelle reaches over and punches his arm. "Ow! Seriously! What's with the violence today?!"

I open my mouth. "How about we~"

"Brian!" Irene exclaims. "What are you doing?! You're declaring your love aren't you?! Wow. When did you suddenly start manning up. I need to catch up..."

Brian just ignores her, completely oblivious to what she has says. His eyes are steady on Natalie. Just waiting.

Damn. The anticipation is freaking killing me!

That's when -surprise, surprise- someone else walks in to the scene. Lewis shifts his eyes between all of us. "Uh. Did someone hit the pause button?"

And to think a second ago there was yelling. I don't know what's worse, that or this dreadful silence that seems to be hovering in the air around us and seems to be too stubborn to leave. If only Jennifer didn't leave. She always has a way of breaking tension. Always. It astounds me sometimes.

I give Lewis a look telling him to leave. He just shrugs and moves along to another aisle of books. Okay, one person gone. Now how to get rid of Keith...

"Ha. Ha. HA! Seriously what's wrong with him?!" he splutters between laughs of hysteria.

Michelle lets out an annoyed breath. "Keith. I think you've done enough."

He blinks as Michelle pushes him away. "Wait! What did I do?!"

"Natalie!" Zoey speaks up again. "He's just confirmed his feelings towards you! The least you can do is answer the guy!"

That's when Brian finally moves. I swear, he must have been a statue for the past half hour or something. "Wait what? Feelings? What are you talking about?"

Zoey blinks. "What are _you_ talking about?!"

"No seriously." Brian asks again. "What feelings? Wait..."

That's when he laughs. "You think...you think I was confessing my feelings to Natalie?! Oh god...that's too good..."

"Wait." Zoey says, clearly confused. "You weren't confessing your love to her?"

Brian laughs a bit more. "No! No! What made you think that?"

Natalie looks up at him for once. "Then what were you confirming...?" she speaks up. Her voice surprisingly calm and steady.

That's when he hesitates. Seriously, dude?! Natalie just tilts her head at him, waiting for his answer. He rubs the back of his neck and lets out a sigh. He drops his gaze to the ground. "Uh..."

Michelle rolls her eyes at him. "Oh come on dude. After everything that's happened, is there really something that is that hard to say?"

"Apparently it is..." I mutter under my breath.

"Just say it." Zoey says, slumping into her seat. "Whatever it is, I don't think it can be good and if it is, I don't see how it's going to top what I thought it was."

"Oh shoot!" Irene exclaims, breaking the heavy silence. She reaches over and grabs Brian's forearm. "I'm so sorry...Come on! We're late!" She drags him away before he can say anything.

Well, there goes another chance to explain things...

"That was..." Michelle drifts off, not able to find the word that describes exactly what had just happened. How long was that anyway?

"Nat?" Joey asks in a hesitant voice. "Are you alright?"

"I guess..." Natalie answers unsurely. "I'm going to go now..."

Zoey's eyes immediately brighten. "To find Brian?!"

"No." She answers simply, leaving.

"Yeah, I'm going to go too." I say, gathering my own stuff. "I'll see you guys later."

* * *

I find Brian and Lewis talking in the Gryffindor common room.

"Dude!" I exclaim, catching both of them off guard. "What was that?!"

He groans. "I'm sorry! I meant to tell her! It just never came out! Then Irene came and...yeah." I just stare at him.

"Who are you talking about?" Lewis questions.

"Natalie."

Lewis arches his brow. "The Ravenclaw?"

Brian just stiffly nods, still not looking at me seeing that I'm still sending him death glares. "Can you stop looking at me like that? I get it! I should have just said it. But it's a lot harder than you think it is! Why don't you just tell her?!"

"I'm not even supposed to know!" I remind him, throwing my arms in the air in frustration.

"Oh yeah..."

Lewis shifts his gaze between Brian and I, clearly trying to figure out what was happening. "Was this what I interrupted before?"

I shrug. "Technically you didn't interrupt since NOTHING WAS HAPPENING."

"I will tell her! Just stop mocking me about it!"

Lewis' eyes narrow a bit at us. "Uh...Okay..."

"You have to admit, all that was pretty darn funny..." Brian says, with an amused laugh.

"It seriously looked like you were confessing your love to her. You were like holding her hand with a sad look on your face like you were rejected!"

"Brian got rejected?" Lilly asks, emerging from the staircase to the dorms.

Lewis confidently nods and wraps an arm around her for a friendly one-armed hug. Which caused a blush to creep up Lilly's cheeks. "Yeah he did. You should have seen his face. Looked like he was about to cry!"

"Dude!" Brian exclaims, feeling slightly betrayed by his best friend.

Lewis chuckles. "I'm just messing with you, man."

Lilly just blinks in confusion between all of us. I quickly fill her in, sending her into a fit of giggles. "You got down on one knee?"

"My shoe was untied!" Brian objects. "Do you expect me to tie it standing up?"

"Still! It's not like you'll be walking or anything right? You could have waited. Natalie must have been freaked out."

"Oh she was. She got like dead silent."

"At least he didn't pull out a ring..." Lewis adds. "Or did he..."

"NO!" Brian exclaims in a this-conversation-is-over tone.

Lilly tilts her head at him. "What did you want to tell her anyway?"

"I think I should tell Natalie first."

Lewis scoffs. "Good luck finding her. She'll probably be avoiding you after all that has happened."

Brian rolls his eyes at him. "She already was before I did. Do you think I scare her or something?"

"Yes." Lewis says.

"No." Lilly objects.

I laugh. "That helps. Thanks guys."

They both give us winning smiles. "Anytime."

"Good luck, man." Lewis offers.

He sighs in response. "Yeah. I'm going to need it."

* * *

"Seriously. How can you not get sick of that stuff?" Michelle asks flatly.

Jennifer gives her a confused look. "How can I?"

"Save it while you can." She answers after rolling her eyes. "I don't think Natalie will be making a new batch soon. She seems to be a bit occupied from hiding herself from Brian."

I nod. Jennifer's face is falls as she takes a baby sized bite out of the last of her rice krispies. I widen my eyes as I look behind her. "It's Natalie."

Jennifer viciously waves her hands to catch her attention. Motioning her over. Hesitantly, she walks over and takes a seat. "NA-TA-LEE!"

"Uh. Hi."

"What's up?"

"Avoiding..._him_." she mutters under her breath. She turns to me. "What does he want anyway?"

I shift in my seat. "He just wants to tell you something."

"Well do you know what?" she asks. I just nod slowly, feeling slightly vulnerable. "Well what is it? Just save him his breath and you tell me."

"I can't."

She knits her brows. "Why not?"

"Because I'm wasn't supposed to know in the first place."

"Then why do you?" She continues to question.

I shrug. "I just do."

"Well why?"

"Can we not play twenty questions?"

Michelle then speaks up. "Is whatever it is like, serious?"

I bite my lip. "Define serious."

"I don't know." She says unsurely. "Like does she have to know?"

"She doesn't, but she has the right to know."

"Then just tell me!" Natalie continues to urge.

"I told you. I'm not the right person to hear it from. I'm not supposed to know at all, and trust me. It's killing me as much as it's killing you."

"Hey Natalie, can you make more rice krispies?" Jennifer cuts in.

Natalie ignores her. "Can you at least tell me a little bit about it? Before I have to confront..._him_." I hesitate. "Please?" She urges.

I bite my lip again. "It has something to do with Jennifer's parents."

They all go silent. I swear I hear crickets chirping. Oh look, a tumbleweed just rolled by.

I'm too scared to look at any of them, especially Jennifer, seeing how she was never told how her parents died. I don't dare to be the one who tells her. No way.

Go ahead, call me selfish for keeping all this to myself. Because you know what? I don't freaking care. I didn't choose to learn all this, I didn't go to it. It came to me, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I'm not one to poke my head into someone else's business, especially if it's as serious as this. And I didn't, I just know things that I'm not supposed to know and it freaking scares me.

"_WHAT_?!" Jennifer finally says, I can already feel her eyes drilling at me like daggers. "Why didn't you tell me?! Natalie deserves to know, but did you even consider that _I_ should deserve to know?! What kind of friend are you?!"

Her words hit me like blades cutting into my flesh. I don't blame her though, I would be seriously pissed as well. "I'm sorry. I just can't tell you. You have to talk to Brian about this. I wasn't a part of it. He was."

* * *

"_BRIAN_!" Michelle shouts, probably seeing him over my shoulder.

"Oh crap..." I hear him mutter under his breath. I hear footsteps get closer behind me. Oh god, is it actually happening?

Michelle gets up from her spot, grabs of chunk of his robes and flings him down. Probably breaking his butt muscles along the way. "You better spill. _Now_."

Brian narrows his eyes at her, clearly pissed. "What did you think I was trying to do all this time, huh?" He demands.

"Look." Jennifer says in a ice cold voice that sends shivers down my spine. "I knew this had to do with Natalie. But you _never_ said it had to do with my parents. So you better start talking before my fist goes down your throat."

"Wait." He says, voice a lot calmer and collected than before. "How did you know..." he turns to me. "What happened to me telling them?!"

"I didn't tell them! I just thought that Jennifer has the right to know it is tied to her parents death!"

"It's tied to their _death_?! You _never_ said that!" She exclaims in a dangerously angry voice.

"I'm sorry!" I exclaim, clamping my hands over my ears. "I don't want to know! Stuff comes to me that I don't want to know! I can't stop it...I just can't."

Jennifer takes several deeps breaths. "How long have you known."

I gulp. Oh no. "Last year. I kept telling Brian to tell you. He just wouldn't!"

"Why don't you just tell us! Surely it shouldn't be coming from you, but come on! We deserve to know all this stuff!"

"Is there even a we anymore?" Natalie breaks in. "I don't see how this is even connected to me. I don't even know Jennifer's parents."

"I thought they left us. I thought they just abandoned Stephen and I." Jennifer exclaims, her voice full of hurt and betrayal. "And you know what? I wasn't even told they died. I had to find out myself! And here you two are, the people who know exactly what happened, and didn't even tell me!"

"Do you think it's easy to tell your best friend that her parents were murdered?" I say, my voice mimicking Jennifer's. "Do you not think how I felt about it? You never mentioned your parents to us. Not a single word. I get how it's a hard subject for you. Do you think I can just bring it up and just tell you that your parents were purposely killed?"

Jennifer's face falls. "They were murdered?"

I get up onto my feet. "I'm going to go." pushing my way through. But Brian catches my arm and shakes his head at me.

The look on his face is hard to read, it's a look I've never seen before. Without thinking about it, I sit back down silently, playing with the grass under me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Jennifer looking at the ground shaking her head as if she can't believe her ears. Michelle and Natalie are deadly silent.

Natalie shakes her head lightly. "I still don't get it. What does all this have to do with me? What does all this have to do with _Brian_? What's happening here?"

Brian swallows the lump in his throat. "Natalie, you're an amnesiac."

More crickets. Another tumbleweed.

Natalie slowly looks up at Brian. "What?"

"You're an amnesiac. You lost your memories about everything. Everything that happened that night." Brian says it surprisingly casually, as if we're having a normal conversation about the weather.

I can feel my palms start to dampen with sweat. My heart rate has reached above maximum and my brain is spinning with thoughts. Fogging up my head, making it feel heavy.

And just like that, it's out.

"Wait." Michelle cuts in. "Are you saying she was there when Jennifer's parents were killed?"

All colour drained from Jennifer's face, making her skin look ghostly pale as she looked over at Natalie. She has her eyes on Brian, shaking her head in denial.

Brian just nods. "Yeah she was. We both were." Natalie gives him a questioning look, her face full of confusion and concern. Within seconds she will know the truth that has shadowed her for years.

He lets out another breath. "Natalie, we used to be best friends."

The bomb has been dropped.

All eyes drift over to Natalie, watching for her reaction. She closes her eyes and lets in a sharp breath. The outcome goes opposite ways, all we really can do is just sit. And wait.

She shakes her head as she opens her eyes, which automatically drifts to Brian. As if he's the only one sitting here. "I don't believe you."

Brian's expression doesn't change. He just continues looking at Natalie as if waiting for her to come to her senses.

"It's true. You and Brian used to be best friends. The memory was just taken from you." I confirm. Natalie has never looked so lost.

"When was this?"

"We were probably eight? I'm not certain."

Natalie gapes at him. "And you are just telling me now?"

I send a I-told-you-so glare at Brian, who replies with an innocent smile. Jennifer glares at him. "Did you ever plan on telling us before? Before Tamara made you I mean." He shifts uncomfortably. "I can't believe you! What were you thinking?! Were you just going to let this slip?!"

"Just let him talk." I cut in. "Remember, he still hasn't told you what happened that day."

"He wasn't about to tell us at all! Can you believe him!?"

Michelle sends her a stern look. "Just let the guy talk won't you?"

He takes a deep breath and stays silent. Jennifer narrows her eyes at him. "Well? Are you going to talk or what?"

"I'm trying to put everything in order. It's all over the place right now." He says, massaging his temples with two of his fingers. "Alright where should I start.."

Jennifer scoffs. "How about the beginning? That sound good for you?"

Clearly, Brian isn't in her good books right now. He sighs in defeat. "Alright, so Natalie and I were walking and-"

"Why were you walking?" Jennifer demands, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him.

"Because we were walking?" Brian answers in a 'duh' voice. "You want to hear what happened or not?" Jennifer just waves for him to continue. Brian rolls his eyes in annoyance.

"As I was saying, _before_ I got interrupted," He begins to explain again, "We were walking home from our neighborhood playground until we heard a scream..."

* * *

And I swear, it was almost Harry Potter all over again.

A man with a dark head of hair directs his dark pair of eyes at the hooded figure in front of him. His arm hovering in front of a woman, she had to be at least three inches shorter than him. She's hiding behind him, fear illuminating her face. Her hair a shade lighter than his, face softer, more fragile while the man, his face is stone hard.

Just from seeing a glimpse of them, I knew they were Jennifer's parents. Both Jennifer and Stephen are a perfect spitting image of the couple.

The hooded figure's back is toward the two kids, full attention on the couple. His hand grips his wand so tightly his knuckles gleamed white in the warm hue of dusk.

The man shakes his head at him. "You did this to yourself."

"You betrayed me! I trusted you with everything, and you just threw everything away like it was nothing but garbage!" The hooded figure's voice roars with anger. The voice was surprisingly familiar, the cold and bitterness can alert any pair of ears.

"We were lied to! We would have never done what we did if we knew it was for evil! You used us!" The woman cries behind the man, who pushes her further behind him.

"And whoever told you that?!" The hooded figure shouts back, taking a mighty step forward. The woman cringes.

"Nattie, I think we should go..." Brian offers, tugging on eight-year-old Natalie's arm. But her eyes are glued to the scene in front of her like a movie.

"Wait..." She answered softly. Her voice merely a whisper. Brian hesitated.

The hooded figure shakes his head in disgust. "I should have known. You two are just a couple of worthless Mudbloods."

The man snaps and lifts his wand, sending a spell straight towards him. The hooded figure deflecting it at the last minute. "Like I said. A bunch of worthless Mudbloods. You don't even have what it takes to be a wizard, so why bother being one?"

Another spell is shot from the tip of his worn out wand, another dodge. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

"I think it's about time to send you where you belong." The man says, gripping his wand in his hand tighter as if his wand was the only thing in the world that would save him at that very moment.

Without further discussion, the hooded figure raises his own wand in a swift movement, "_Avada Kedavra!_"

Natalie lets out a tiny gasp from her mouth, her little hand covering it quickly. Brian grabs her free one. "Nattie, we have to go. Now."

The couple lay there deadly still, gone from the world. The one left standing turns around to reveal his face. The one and only, William Fabray III.

* * *

That's all! The four of us hope you enjoy it. Hope you read again next week!

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	5. Strange Pasts, Tryouts and Disappearance

Hello! It's Thursday so it's time for another chapter. We hope you enjoy :)

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Michelle's POV**_

"Since we were wondering where the scream came from, we decided to check it out. Biggest mistake that we ever made in my opinion, if you ask me..." Brian says.

Natalie shakes her head. "Why was I such a stupid eight-year-old...?"

Jennifer smirks. "You called her Nattie? That's adorable! Can you start doing that again?"

"What happened after?" I ask.

"William found Natalie-" He continues. Jennifer cuts him off again.

"Say Nattie." she says, with a big grin on her face. Seriously, how can she be smiling at the name 'Nattie' while she just heard the story of her parents death?

Brian rolls his eyes at her. "Anyway, William found out where she was and shot this spell at her that I've never heard before. Whatever it was, nothing happened. After, he had this creepy grin on his face and he started saying all this stuff that I didn't have a clue about..."

"Something about finding...forget it I have no idea. After, I grabbed her wrist, about to drag her away when he shot the memory erasing spell at her. After that, he just left."

Natalie blinks. "Then?"

Brian rubs the back of his neck. "You kind of passed out and I had to carry you back...you were heavy..."

Jennifer laughs and calms down almost instantly. "Seriously. Why did you stop calling Natalie 'Nattie'?"

"I don't know. I guess cause we stopped hanging out after that happened. The next day, when I went to visit her she just looked at me and was like, 'who are you?'" He shrugs, as if it's nothing and turns to Natalie. "I don't even remember why I started calling you that anyway. I guess, maybe it was when I was too young to say your full name. Instead of calling me 'Brian' you called me 'Brain' sometimes, even though I was never half as smart as you were. It still stayed that way. I always knew you would be a Ravenclaw one day, and look. You are."

Natalie blushes, causing Jennifer's smile to grow wilder. Wow, I wonder what would have happened if Zoey were here...

"What spell was it?" I question, saving Natalie from his little walk down memory lane.

"Futurum." Tamara answers, seeing Brian had completely forgotten.

Natalie shoots a confused look. "That's a spell?"

"Apparently it is." Tamara shrugs. "There's probably a bunch of spells we don't know about. I mean, who knew _Aquafenti_ was a spell until Jennifer said it..."

Jennifer beams. "I remember! I still haven't gotten a chance to use it this year...poor Collin..." she drifts off, remembering what happened in first-year. Oh boy. That just brings me back to what happened in the infirmary.

Shivers.

Jennifer shakes Brian's arm. "Tell me more about what Natalie was like when she was little!"

Brians glances at Natalie. "Uh..why don't you ask her? I'm sure she didn't forget everything. Or you can ask Joey, I'm sure he'll know."

Jennifer pouts. "Then can you continue calling Natalie 'Nattie'? Please?"

"Natalie never really liked it when I called her that." Brian says, laughing. "I called her that to tease her. Her annoyed face is absolutely adorable."

Natalie blushes again. "Wait. Is all this why you've been looking at me strangely all year? You just didn't know how to tell me?"

Brian nods. "Yeah. Why? What else would it be?"

Pst. Guys are so clueless sometimes.

Natalie just shakes her head. "Nothing. Never mind."

"So are you going to call her Nattie or what?!" Jennifer demands playfully.

He just rolls his eyes at her. "Ask Natalie if it's okay I guess. Look I got to go. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. You know where I am about half the time." He gets up and brushes off his robes. "See you girls later."

"See ya."

After he is out of earshot Jennifer immediately looks over at Natalie. "Well Nattie?" She teases. Natalie just gives her an annoyed look and ignores her.

"Well...that's some crazy past story that you have..." I comment.

"It's not like I wanted to have a crazy past story." Natalie says, sounding annoyed and distressed.

"Wait, he said that Jennifer's mom had said that old man Fabray whatever number he is, had used them. But for what?" I ask curiously. From all the encounters we've had with him, he was pretty cunning and could easily trick others if he wanted to. He really gets on my nerves; in fact, I vowed that the next time I saw him I would jinx him to oblivion! That old man did get me petrified for Merlin's sake!

"I don't know." Tamara answers, shrugging her shoulders. I look at her skeptically. She's usually the one who knows this kind of stuff.

I put my hands on my hips. "You're not keeping anything important from us, are you?" I demand. "You're the one who usually knows important stuff."

Tamara puts her arms up in defense, as if to say take it easy. "Look, just because I know more of this than you do doesn't mean I know everything. You can either choose to trust me or not, your choice."

"OK, OK. I trust ya. But still, I think it's important to know what the old man used them for." I say, bringing us back to the important topic. "After all, he did kill them after they...finished their purpose." I finish, choosing my words carefully just in case I set Jennifer off. This is a sensitive topic...Jennifer has her poker face on but I can see her hands clench into tight fists by her sides.

"Well, I don't think they said what they did out loud that night." says Natalie. "If we want to find out what happened we need another way."

"But what way?" I say.

"We could try and find out more about them." says Tamara.

"Is there someone else who's involved?" Jennifer asks, looking at Tamara. Tamara shakes her head in response. "Nope. Just Natalie, Brian, and your parents. Unless you count a black cat that was looking down at them from a tree branch." She shrugs.

"Wait, didn't I see a cat in my tea cup in Divination?" says Jennifer. We all nod our heads. She did say something about that earlier.

"Do you remember what it means?" I ask.

"Um...it said it can have many different meanings. I think the book said it could mean evil, perils in the night, fresh changes, honor and mysteries."

"Most of those don't sound really good." I point out.

She narrows her eyes at me, with an annoyed look on her face. "Of course it's not good." She retorts, giving me a glare. I give her an annoyed stare.

"Fine, whatever." I brush her off. Jennifer looks upset now. OK, I shouldn't have said that but still...she does it to me sometimes too.

"Let's continue talking about this tomorrow. It's time for curfew." Tamara cuts in before our soon-to-be argument escalates. We all agree, say our partings and walk off in the direction of our respective house dorms.

* * *

I walk into the Defence Against the Dark Arts and sit down beside Tamara. Before I get the chance to talk to her, Professor Harris walks into the room.

"Good morning everyone. Today we will be learning about many different creatures. I know this sounds like a Care for Magical Creatures topic but today I will be teaching you how to defend yourself from these creatures. Please turn to page 10 of your books."

I turn to page 10 like everyone else. On the page I see a lot of different and weird looking creatures; some look pretty scary. I hope I don't ever need to defend myself from them. I'm happy I haven't seen any of them so far...well I guess besides the Occamy and the Basilisk. I shiver at the memory.

"Okay, let's start with the Grindylow. It is rated XX by the Ministry of Magic which means it is classified as harmless..."

* * *

"I want everyone to write a 5-inch essay on any creature of your choice. It will be due Thursday. Class dismissed."

Tamara and I walk out of the classroom and meet up with Jennifer and Natalie.

"Hey," I say.

"Hi." says Natalie.

"Why is there a crowd over there?" asks Tamara.

I look up and see a bunch of people crowding around the wall. I guess the Quidditch tryout results are out. I wonder if we got in again. We walk up to the crowd and after a bit of waiting, manage to read the results.

**Gryffindor Quidditch Team:**

Zackary Bell - Chaser [_Captain_]

Bella Cross - Chaser

Lewis Zhou - Beater

Tamara Lynn - Seeker

Olivia White- Chaser

Jarred Wilson - Beater

Asher Miller - Keeper

Brian Lee - Substitute

**Slytherin Quidditch Team:**

Michelle Chang - Beater

Keith Tan - Beater

Caleb Hansworth - Seeker [_Captain_]

Aubrey Reyes - Chaser

Jacob Manchester - Chaser

Elliot Walker - Keeper

Kelly Nelson - Chaser

Jay Wells - Substitute

**Ravenclaw Quidditch Team:**

Zoey Jenkins - Seeker

Natalie Xiang - Chaser

Joey Lu - Keeper

Lisa Johnson - Chaser

Nathan Hayes - Chaser [_Captain_]

Lisa Yang - Beater

Dylan Cook - Beater

Audrey Green - Substitute

**Hufflepuff Quidditch Team:**

Jennifer Wu - Chaser

Collin Huang - Chaser

Owen Graves - Seeker

Autumn Price - Chaser

Julie Carpenter - Beater

Hazel Garrett - Keeper

Franklin Bennet- Beater [_Captain_]

Elise West - Substitute

"We made it!" I say.

"Yeah." says Jennifer eating her celebratory rice krispie happily.

"Didn't you already eat one today?" asks Natalie.

"Today's special; we made the team again." says Jennifer.

"Fine. Just this one time." says Natalie.

Down the hall, I can hear running. I turn in the direction it came from. It is a bunch of first-years, mostly from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, with hopeful, determined faces. Now that I think about it, most of the players are from last year. That means more than 80% of the hopeful first-years have been cut. This is just sad for them. I would be disappointed if I didn't make it in first-year.

"Yes!" I hear one of the first-years yell, followed by two others. It looks like the number of first-year Quidditch players has increased since Harry Potter went to school here; he was the first first-year to make if after all. He's probably practically everyone's hero, which he is. The other first-years leave with disappointed looks on their faces while some stay to congratulate the three students.

"So want to go hang out at our usual spot?" I ask.

"Sure." says Tamara.

The four of us walk out and sit under the tree.

"So, we still have the problem of figuring out how Jennifer's parents were um, used." says Natalie, glancing at Jennifer.

"I don't think we can check the library this time." says Tamara. "It wouldn't be recorded in anything here. If there was, it would have been destroyed by now."

"But how are we going to figure it out then?" I ask.

"Do you know any of your parents friends, relatives or someone who might know some stuff about them?"

"No, I don't have contact with anyone." says Jennifer. "I don't think most of my relatives knew about the wizarding world and I don't think their friends even know that Stephen and I exist."

"Do you think we could find any of them?" I ask.

"Probably not, at least not with Muggle ways. The orphanage tries to look for people my parents knew. They haven't found anyone so far." says Jennifer.

"We would only be able to do it the Muggle way, besides the books in the library." says Tamara. "Magic is not going to help in this case."

"I guess we're just going to have to keep thinking." I say.

* * *

I change into my Quidditch uniform and walk onto the Quidditch pitch with my broom. There's only one new player this year. Elliot Walker. I recognize him as one of the first-years from earlier. I walk over to the rest of the team and soon Caleb walks onto the Quidditch Pitch.

"Okay, everyone. Let's start by flying three laps of the pitch. I expect this to be fast." says our captain.

We all follow his instructions and soon we are done.

"That was good but I hope we can go faster next time. This is my final year at Hogwarts and I want to finish off this year winning the Quidditch cup. Understand?" says Caleb.

We all nod.

"Good. Today we're going to just practise our own positions. I'll be releasing the Bludgers and Snitch for the Beaters and Seeker while the Keeper and Chasers practise blocking and scoring. Get in your positions. I'll be releasing the balls once you get up there." says Caleb.

I fly into the air and meet up with Keith in the middle of the pitch. Caleb releases the Bludgers and they fly up into the air. I look at him and nod my head left. He understands and goes after the other Bludger. We've been playing for years now so he understands what I mean.

I hit the Bludger away from one of my teammates and it's sent far away. We continue for a while and soon, Caleb tells us to pack up the Bludgers; which sometimes, can take a while. Keith and I quickly manage to get the Bludgers back into their case and we're dismissed. We start walking out together.

"So, do you think our new Keeper is good enough to replace Morgan?" asks Keith.

"He seems pretty good, not as good as Morgan for now but we haven't seen him in a game yet." I say.

"True, but he's doing really good for a first-year. Do you think we'll have a good season this year?" he asks.

"I think so. We have most of the player's from last year so all we have to do is practise." I say.

"Yeah. I've got to go finish the Potion's essay. See you later." he says walking off in a different direction.

"Bye." I say as I walk in the direction of the library to finish my own homework.

* * *

I sigh in frustration. Where the Merlin is my partner for the Herbology assignment?! We were suppose to meet in front of the Slytherin girls' dorm like an hour ago. My partner, Liza, is one of my friends but not the closest. We talk in class but that's it. I hate it when people ditch me at the last minute; thus, making me finish the work all by myself with no help whatsoever.

"Hey, she's still not here yet?" Keith comes by with another good friend of ours, Adrian Hemsworth. He has dark crystal eyes with short hair and bangs in his face. His hair pretty much look like one of the Muggle stars my friends showed me. What was his name again...? Justin...Bieber...? Is that right? Oh well.

"No." I reply, annoyed.

"How long have you been waiting?" Adrian asks curiously.

"An hour so far." I answer. "Where is she? She's not the type to be late."

"Yeah, she's on time for everything; sometimes even earlier." says Keith.

"You'll find her eventually." says Adrian.

"I hope so." I say. "I should go look for her."

"Okay then. See you later." says Keith.

"Bye." I say as I walk to my dorm room in the girls' dormitory.

* * *

I continue to look around the Great Hall but I can't find her anywhere. Everyone I've asked hasn't seen her since yesterday. This is strange. Where could she have gone? Suddenly I bump into someone, hard. I look up to see Lewis. Why now...?

"Watch where you're going Slytherin!" yells Lewis.

"Oh, just go away. I'm looking for someone." I say as I try to walk around him. He walks in front of me.

"Get out of my way! I've already told you I'm looking for someone. It's urgent." I say, still trying to walk around him. He continues to block me.

"Move it! I have things to do!" I say.

"Apologize first. You bumped into me." says Lewis.

"To you?! Never! Now move." I say.

"No." he says.

"Move now." I say sternly.

"No." he says in the same tone. "Where are you going anyway? Who's so important?"

"Why should I tell you?" I say, putting my hand on my hip. "It's none of your business.'

"How do you know that I don't know where he or she is?" he says.

"I doubt you know her." I say.

"After two years of classes with everyone, you get to know people's names at least." he replies.

"Fine, do you know where Liza is?" I ask, getting annoyed.

"No." he says.

"Now move so I can find her." I say, still trying to pass him.

"But..." he continues.

"But what?" I say.

"Apologize first." he says.

"Fine, sorry." I say quickly and quietly.

"Good enough. Last time, which was yesterday evening, when I was walking through the halls she turned a corner and disappeared." he says.

"Disappear? Are you sure you don't need glasses?" I say.

"My eyes are fine. Now do you want to listen or not?" he says.

"How then?" I say.

"She dropped something and when I turned the corner to give it to her she'd disappeared."

"She could have walked into a classroom." I say.

"There were no doors in the corridor, only windows, portraits and statues. Are you saying she jumped out the window?" says Lewis.

"She could have ran." I say.

"The corridor is too long. Are you saying she's an Olympic athlete?"

"Okay, fine. She disappeared, but that doesn't mean she's not in the school right now. She can't just randomly disappear. Maybe there's a reason we haven't thought of." I say.

"I don't know, what about the Sorting Hat's song?" he says. Then we hear someone shout Lewis' name behind us. He just walks away. Well that was rude.

The song runs through my head. '_Beware, for things are about to occur. Missing, dead, danger stirs. Beware for it acts at unexpected times, It acts when it thinks time is prime._' Oh yeah...I almost completely forgot about that until he mentioned it. If what the Sorting Hat says is true, there are actually going to be casualties this year. This is definitely not good. I hope Liza's not actually missing.

* * *

It's been three days and Liza is still nowhere to be seen. I hope Lewis isn't right... I walk into charms and sit down beside Jennifer. I scan the room for Liza but I don't see her. I turn to Jennifer.

"Hey, have you seen Liza anywhere?" I ask.

"No, though it does seem that's she's been skipping all her classes the past few days."

"I was supposed to do my Herbology assignment with her and she didn't show up. It's not like her to do that." I say.

"Yeah, she always does seem to be the first one in the classroom all the time." she replies.

"It's like she's disappeared." I say.

Her eyes widen immediately. "The Sorting Hat's song...You don't think that...?"

Before I can reply, Professor Flitwick walks into the room and starts the lesson.

"Welcome back to another lesson. Today we will be learning the Cheering Charm. This charm will cause happiness and content but if done incorrectly can cause uncontrollable laughter. The incantation is serenans. Everyone please pair up and try it on a partner."

We try it on each other but only succeed at causing uncontrollable laughter.

"_Finite._" I say as I end the spell on Jennifer who has been laughing for the past five minutes.

"_Serenans._" she tries. I end up laughing too.

"Okay everyone. Class is over. For the people who haven't mastered the charm, it is for homework. Class dismissed." says Professor Flitwick from the front of the room.

The two of us walk out together and head to the Great Hall for lunch.

"So you really think...?" says Jennifer continuing our conversation from earlier.

"You really think what?" I hear Natalie say from behind us. Tamara is with her.

"Liza has disappeared." I say.

"Oh yeah, you were looking for her a few days ago to finish your herbology assignment." says Tamara.

"I haven't seen her in days and then if you think about the Sorting Hat's song..." I say.

"Are you sure she's disappeared in _that _way?" says Natalie. "There might just be something that has happened in her home and she had to leave quickly without saying goodbye."

"That's what I thought, that is, until I heard what Lewis had said." I say.

"You talked to him? Why would you do that?" asks Jennifer.

"I bumped into him when I was looking for her." I say.

"What did he say?" asks Tamara.

"He said that when he walked down the hall that when Liza had turned the corner she had disappeared." I say.

"She could have walked into a classroom." says Jennifer.

"I said that too but he said that the hall had no doors, only windows and other decorations." I reply.

"But could this really be...?" asks Natalie.

"I hope not. I've been hoping Lewis was wrong but as more days pass..." I say.

"Have you tried telling one of the professors yet?" asks Tamara.

"No, I should but I doubt Professor Snabe would listen. He doesn't like it when students ask him things." I say.

"You could try Professor McGonagall, she's deputy Headmistress and we have her next for Transfiguration" says Jennifer.

"Yeah, we can do that after class." I say as we reach the Great Hall. "See you later." I say as we walk to our separate tables.

"Bye," they reply at the same time.

* * *

"Class dismissed." says Professor McGonagall from the front. Everyone starts to walk out. We don't follow. We walk up to her.

"Is there anything you need help on?" she asks as we walk up to her.

"Oh, no. It's about Liza." I say.

"What happened?" she asks.

"She's disappeared." says Jennifer.

"What do you mean by disappeared?" she questions.

"We haven't seen her for days and she hasn't been to any of her classes." I say. "Did she have to leave for something?"

"No, not that I know of. Professor Snabe should be more clear on this matter." she replies.

"We came to you because we think it might have to do with the Sorting Hat's song." says Jennifer.

Her eyes widen slightly, just enough for us to notice.

"Are you sure? Have you found any proof?" she asks.

We tell her what Lewis had said.

"Well, that does seem strange but we can't be absolutely sure it has anything to do with the Sorting Hat's song or William Fabray." she says predicting what we were thinking. "I will ask Professor Snabe about Liza and any other of the staff. If this continues, we will owl her family to ask about her. If we prove this theory we may need to increase the security around the school. Now don't worry about this, we'll find her. Thank you for coming to tell me about this."

"But..." says Jennifer.

"There's nothing to worry about, now go to your next class. You're going to be late." she says.

Together, we walk out of the classroom and walk off in different directions. As I walk to potions I continue to think; the thoughts run quickly through my head. Could this all just be a misunderstanding? Did she just leave for an emergency? Are we wrong about the song? Does this even have anything to do with William? Did someone really manage to sneak into the school with all the extra security and precautions? Will this happen again? Are we never going to have a normal year here? The last one ends my trail of thoughts. I think of the past years. Based on the last two years, I think the answer is yes.

* * *

The end...for now :D

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	6. Theories, Black Cats and Found

Hey everyone! It is time for another chapter! We hope you enjoy :D

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Jennifer's POV**_

I'm just about to finish eating the last of my rice krispie from lunch as Professor Dumbledore walks up to the podium in the front. This can't be good...It's never been good these days...Wait, is this about Liza? She's been gone for a week now. Maybe Professor McGonagall really couldn't find her.

"Good afternoon everyone. As much as I'd like to deliver good news over your lunch break, it seems that I can't."

The room goes silent. Everyone, maybe besides the first-years, know that when Professor Dumbledore speaks like that, it's something serious. He continues to speak.

"As some of the third-years have noticed, Liza Crawford, one of the Slytherins students has been missing for about a week now. We have looked into it and it seems she hasn't just gone home for personal reasons. It appears to be a disappearance. I know this may be frightening for some of you but I wish for you all to take this matter seriously. We don't know how she has disappeared but there's a chance that it could be kidnap. Everyone must take the safety precautions very seriously now that we know that someone might have gotten into the school. Does everyone understand that?"

Everyone nods and no one speaks. They all listen for what our headmaster has to say next.

"Good. We will be increasing security around Hogwarts and later today, a couple of the Auror's from the Ministry of Magic will arrive to keep guard of the place. For now, the Hogsmeade trips and Quidditch haven't been canceled but if this happens again, which I wish not to, they will be canceled. We will keep the same rules as I have said at the beginning of the year. The point I would like to remind you of is to have your wands at all times as it might save you if someone is ever to attack you. Professor Harris will also be teaching you the Shield Charm if you don't already know. I don't want everyone to worry but I want you to be aware that this might happen. That is all. You may continue to your classes." He steps down from the podium and walks out of the room. I notice Professor McGonagall walk out after him.

This isn't good...It's official, she's been kidnapped. I start to hear a lot of talking around the room.

"Do you think it's the guy from the newspaper? What was his name again?" I hear from the Gryffindor table.

"Does this have anything to do with the Sorting Hat's song?" says someone from behind me.

Even Bianca begins to ask. "So what's the theory you guys have come up with this time."

"Theory?" I say.

"Well, you always seem to know a lot about these things." she replies.

"I guess so...I wish I didn't. My life would be so much easier." I say.

"Yeah, I guess I would think that too if I were you. So any ideas?" she says.

"We haven't found much. It's just the obvious stuff. The Sorting Hat's song and William's escape. The only thing we have is that Lewis kind of saw her disappear."

"What do you mean kind of?" she asks.

"He turned the corner and she was gone. There was also no way she just left somehow from there." I reply.

"Well it looks like you haven't found much this time." she says. She looks at her watch. "It's time for our next class. Let's go."

"Okay," I reply as I pick up my bag and walk after her.

* * *

I walk to Herbology and just when I'm about ten metres away from the greenhouses, I see a flash of black in the corner of my eye. I look in that direction but don't see anything. That's weird...Oh well, I guess I'm just seeing things.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" asks Bianca.

"Right. Coming!" I say catching up to her.

We arrive just in time. Professor Longbottom begins to speak.

"Good afternoon everyone. Today, we will be dealing with puffapods. These plants create these large, pink seed pods and inside are shining beans. We will be harvesting these pods and collecting their beans. I've been told you will be using these in Potions class by Professor Snabe so make sure you collect enough for your next potion. There are already plants in front of you. You may begin."

I try to collect the beans but my pod slips from my hand and falls to the ground. The beans begin to flower on the ground. Great...what am I going to do about my mark for both subjects...? Professor Longbottom comes up behind me.

"Don't worry, I used the drop things all the time when I was your age. Just make sure you don't drop it this time." he says, handing me another plant.

"Thanks, Professor." I say.

"You're welcome." he says walking off to go help another student.

Thankfully, I don't drop it this time and successfully manage to collect the beans. Soon, class is dismissed.

I walk out of the greenhouses and everyone follows Professor Longbottom who is leading us to our next class. As I walk, I see another black image flash before my eyes. This time I'm certain I wasn't seeing things. I look to my right and see nothing but a tree. It's only when I look up that I see it. A black cat. No...it has to be a coincidence right? It's just a coincidence that there's a black cat in Tamara's image, my tea cup and now. I look up again. It looks at me with it's bright glowing eyes; it's stare sends shivers down my spine. Why is it staring at me like that? It's like it knows me or something. How can that even be? Someone soon interrupts my thoughts by tapping me on my shoulder.

"Jennifer, it's time to go. You're going to be late for class." says Professor Longbottom who seems to have come back to get me.

"Oh sorry, I'm coming." I say quickly running to catch up to with the rest.

* * *

"It was staring at me like it knew me. How could a cat know me?" I say playing with a piece of grass that I've pulled up from the ground. The four of us are sitting under the tree at our usual spot doing our homework, trying to enjoy the last of the good weather before it turns cold.

"Are you sure it was staring at you?" says Natalie. "It might have been looking at something else."

"No, it was like we were having this staring contest. I just know it was looking at me. It was practically analyzing me." I say.

"Can cats even do that?" asks Michelle.

"I don't know, but could it really be a coincidence that we've had a black cat reference three times?" I say.

"It is a bit suspicious but what does this even prove?" says Natalie.

"I just find it a bit weird. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with what's going on right now but I don't think it's just a coincidence as much as I want it to be." I reply.

"Well, I don't think it's the same cat as in Tamara's image." says Michelle. "Do cats even live that long?"

"Well, how long has it been?" asks Tamara.

"Probably not short enough for a cat to live though." says Natalie. "Though there is a chance that it's not a regular cat. Then there would be a chance that it would live that long."

"Do you remember what the cat looked like Tamara?" I ask.

"It was pure black and the eyes were so bright they would probably glow in the dark. It looked like it was watching what was happening..." she replies.

"That sounds like the cat I saw. I should've taken a picture of it to show you." I say.

"Hey, isn't there a superstition where if a black cat crosses your path you'll have bad luck?" asks Michelle.

"Yeah...don't tell me I'm going to have bad luck...I did drop the seed pod in class today..." I say more to myself then my friends.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Tamara reassures.

"Maybe it just is all a coincidence." says Natalie.

"I hope so..." I reply.

* * *

"Shoot!" I yell as I looked at my smashed rice krispie on the floor. Don't tell me the bad luck is happening...

"What happened?" says Michelle as she walks up to me, Tamara and Natalie following.

"I dropped my rice krispie..." I say.

"Don't do that again...We thought something happened to you." says Michelle.

"Sorry but the bad luck..."

"It's not bad luck. It's just one thing." says Tamara.

"I think it's good luck." says Natalie.

"Good luck!? Are you kidding me? That was my rice krispie for the day." I say glaring at her.

"Well if you didn't drop it I wouldn't have given you this one." says Natalie taking a rice krispie out of her bag. I notice that this one has frosting and a few candies on it. She hands it to me.

"Isn't that a bit too much sugar?" asks Michelle.

"She's not getting one every day so it should be okay." says Natalie.

"Thank you!" I say giving her a hug. I open it happily and pop it into my mouth.

"How can you even eat that so fast?" asks Tamara.

"I'm not making that again unless you chew it..." says Natalie.

I finish it. "Okay, I will. That was good."

"It's time for class now. Let's go." says Natalie.

"Okay." I say following her.

* * *

_A week later..._

The bell rings, signalling the end of the class for today. I gather my stuff and leave the greenhouse, saying goodbye to Professor Longbottom. Behind me, Bianca quickly runs to catch up with my long strides.

"We have so much homework from Herbology today." Bianca whines. I nod in agreement.

"We always have too much homework these days!" I whine to Bianca. We walk past the forest near the greenhouses for Herbology. All of a sudden I hear unusual noises from the forest. The both of us turn in that direction. I stare at that particular direction strangely. Am I just paranoid or did I just actually hear it?

"Did you hear that...?" Bianca asks nervously, glancing at the forest.

"Yeah..." I answer softly. My grip on my school stuff tightens. I narrow my eyes at the place. I have a feeling something happened in there. "Do you want to check it out?" Bianca asks. I gape at her.

"Are you serious? It looks scary and creepy. You can go by yourself." I reply, taking a few steps away from her and that place. She gives me an annoyed stare and grabs me by the arm, dragging me to her.

"Nuh-uh. You're coming with me, whether you like it or not. I don't want to be alone in a place like that." Bianca glares at me, with annoyance on her face. I scowl at her, tugging my arm from her grip.

"Fine." I grit out, looking towards the place with nervousness. Who knows what could be in there? I know something happened in there; I just don't know if it's good or bad. But based on my luck...it's bad. Bianca drags my by the arm to where the forest trail starts. Then Bianca drops my arm and starts walking into the forest, looking around the trees curiously. I run after her, not wanting her or I alone in this place.

After like 20 minutes of wandering around, we stop walking. I turn to Bianca, "Are you sure we weren't just hearing things? It could just be our imagination..." I trail off. Bianca bites her lower lip with an unreadable expression on her face.

"I'm sure it isn't. We both heard it, and we're here, so we might as well keep trying to find it." She shrugs her shoulders and continue walking very quickly.

"Hey wait for me!" I yell at her, taking long strides to catch up.

"It must be past curfew by now! We have to go now." I urge Bianca. Why is she so stubborn!? She rolls her eyes at me.

"I would rather be out here than back at the Common Room. We have been stuck in there for two months now!" She exclaims. I got to admit...it is true. I have always wanted to stay out longer like this before with the exception of the time's when everything didn't involve missing students and criminals.

"But that's for a good reason!" I try to reason. Bianca finally turns around, but looking annoyed. She put her hands on her hips and opens her mouth to say something. Then we hear the sounds we heard before. Our heads whipped in the direction it came from.

"Come on." Bianca whispers to be cautious. I hesitate for a second and nod. We creep to where the noises could have came from, straining our ears to hear the sounds again. Where did it come from?

I huff in frustration. "Bianca, let's just go back. Creatures usually start to come out at this time." I tell her.

"Why are you being such a scaredy cat? Come on." She glares at me, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Fine, if you don't want to leave, I'm leaving you here." I threaten. I turn back in the direction we came from and begin to walk back. I don't hear Bianca following me.

Fine if she wants to be left here, it's her problem not mine. I'm so mad that I don't even look where I'm going. This leads me to faceplanting on the forest ground. Ugh...

"Jennifer, are you okay?" I hear Bianca running over to me. I stand up, brushing the dirt off of my robes.

"Yeah, I'm alright." I reply to her. "What did I trip over anyway?" I ask her.

"You tripped over a tree root. Or at least I think it is. It's getting too dark to see." She replies. I take out my wand. I wave my wand and says, "_Lumos_." My wand lights up and I prod around the area where I tripped. Bianca does the same with her wand. Then I smell something very disgusting. Bianca and I cover our noses and mouths in disgust. Gosh, what is that nasty smell...?

"Oh my gosh! Jennifer is that a hand!?" Bianca screeches. I whip to where she is.

"What!? Where!?" I exclaim. Bianca points to where she was talking about with a shaking finger. I slowly look where she's pointing. What I saw next...it made me want to run out of there with Bianca. Indeed, it was a hand...a human hand...Not only that but...most of the flesh was either rotten or has been eaten. I can feel my lunch from earlier coming back up.

My hand shakes as it reaches out to push the bushes away, to see who the unlucky person was. As I get closer, the smell of a corpse gets worse. I feel Bianca putting her arm on my left shoulder supportingly. I really am glad I have friends like her. I gulp nervously, finding more courage to find out who died.

I tear at the bushes, bracing myself for the worse. Behind the bushes...I really did throw up my lunch. Bianca went to another bush to throw up too. The dead corpse...it belonged to Liza. I have seen her around with Michelle and Helda. She was a pureblood too and she's nice for a Slytherin. But I wouldn't wish for...this to happen to anybody.

Here is her corpse, all mangled, bloody, and rotting. Her robes are torn and tattered. Some pieces of her robes were a few feet from her. Her once, beautiful blonde hair was stained with blood and clumps of hair was ripped out. Liza's head is cracked open, blood pouring out of her head, and her brain looks partly eaten. Her crystal blue eyes, which used to be shining with determination to do good in her studies are dull and gone.

Her stomach is ripped open, and her insides have maggots and insects. Gosh, I feel like barfing again, after seeing that...Everywhere else has either rotted away or been eaten...She lost her arm and leg. Oh gosh, how did she die...She didn't deserve to get this...

"Oh God...Liza..." Bianca whimpers. Both of us are trembling in horror and fear. What could do such a cruel thing to a girl who had a future ahead of her...Michelle told me she wanted to be an Auror...Then I hear heavy steps behind us. Both of us turn to see what is behind us. It is a huge vicious looking Chimera. It has two heads. One is a lion's head and the other a bird's head. It has wings and and the body of a lion but with scales. We freeze in terror. What's a Chimera doing here!? I can see it eyeing Liza's corpse in hunger.

That just pisses me off. I point my wand and took a duelling stance, ready for it's attack. We need to get back to Hogwarts safely...Not to mention, bring Liza's body back to her family. "Bianca, make sure to stay close and guard Liza's body. We need to get back to Hogwarts quickly." I tell her urgently.

"Got it." Bianca says with a shaky voice but tries to be strong.

"Send some kind of signal to the Professors that we're here." I add.

"Ok." Bianca replies.

"Alright, kitty. Stay away and be a good kitty." I threaten the Lion Chimera with my wand in the air. It growls at me in response and starts to crouch. Oh dang...I need to distract it for a while and get it's attention away from Liza and Bianca. I run to the right and wave my wand.

"_Aquafenti_!" It explodes right in front of the front paws of the Chimera. It roars in annoyance on it's hind legs like how a horse does. This isn't looking good. How come Bianca hasn't send up the signals yet!? I'm about to become chicken/cat food in a few seconds. If only the others were with me right now...

"_Periculum_!" I hear Bianca chants. I see the sparks out of the corner of my eye flying up towards the sky. Then a big BANG! That must be loud enough for the Professors to hear.

"Send up more!" I scream while rolling on the ground to avoid being swiped to the side by it's huge tail.

"_Inferno_!" I yell, pointing at the Chimera. But instead of panicking, it just jumps over the flames I conjured and pounces at me.

"_Pro-_" I got cut off as the wind gets cut off from my lungs. I crash to the ground, head bashing into the ground nearby, causing black spots in my vision.

"JENNIFER!" I hear Bianca screaming in anger. Is this how I'm going to die? Eaten by a mutant chicken/cat while having Bianca die along with me? I can hear her screaming. But It fades out as the Chimera open it's mouth ready to eat.

Then it all went black.

* * *

I can hear chattering around me, waking me from my sleep. I open my eyes slightly, only to be blinded by the sun. Wait sun? I immediately sit up in my bed but regret it right after. My head is pounding and I feel like I've been run over by a truck. Well I actually did get tackled down by something close to the size of a truck...I slowly get up, this time careful of my wounds.

I feel around my head. There is a bandage around it. I also have bandages around my chest and torso. Must be because the Chimera was standing on top of me. I can't believe I'm still alive. I really was sure that I was going to die and that Bianca would come to the afterlife with me shortly after.

I look around the room I'm currently in. Oh, I'm in the Hospital Wing. There's some students on some of the other beds. But at the far corner, I can see a body covered by a sheet with perfume smelling plants around it. A tug pulls at my heart. Is that Liza or...Bianca? I get off the bed, making my way to the body covered by the sheet. I take a breath and grab a hold of the sheet, ready to pull the sheet when 3 voices interrupted me.

"What do you think you're doing out of bed?"

I turn around too quickly for my injuries to take. I sway around until my hands stable my balance. I look up to see Tamara, Natalie and Michelle looking worried and upset. They help me to my bed and I get comfortable.

"How long was I out?" I ask them.

"The entire day." Tamara answers.

"You have no idea how worried we were when we found out you were in the infirmary." Natalie crosses her arms and says, "What were you and Bianca thinking, going into the forest like that with just the two of you? You have no idea how dangerous that was. You were just lucky it was just one Chimera and not more. You really could have died." She glares.

"Wait, what happened to Bianca?" I demand. I hope the body is Liza's and not Bianca's...

"She's just fine. Bianca's in Professor Longbottom's office. Both Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall are also in there. You and her are in trouble." Tamara replies. I sigh out of relief. Iit's not Bianca under there. Which reminds me...

"If you're wondering, Liza's parents are rushing to get here." Michelle says softly, looking upset.

"More Aurors are being brought in for security. I heard that he's thinking of bringing Dementors from Azkaban too...But he doesn't know if he should, since the last time they were here they attacked a student." Natalie informs.

"My house is looking for revenge. So who ever did this to Liza will pay." Michelle clenches her fists in anger. I look at her pitifully. They were good friends before this happened. I am about to comfort her when the entrance doors slam open.

"My baby! Where's my baby Liza?!" A woman screams. She looks like an older version of Liza but with a button nose instead. Two guys comes up behind her closely. One is a tall guy who looks like he's in his early twenties who would look cute if he smiled, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon...The other is a shorter man who looks older than him. The tall guy must be his son. They basically look alike just like how Liza and her mom does.

Liza's mother looks around the room and her eyes set on the body. Tears glistening her eyes, full of hope and rage she marches to the bed. Her mom grips the sheet very tight and is about to pull it until her husband takes a hold of her hand, taking it away from the sheet. "Are you sure you're ready to see this, Elizabeth? We can wait. We know it's her." He says comfortingly soft.

She glares at her husband. "Ready? What do you mean ready? I want to see if this, this thing is actually our princess! How can you keep me from doing this, Drake!?" She snaps.

"Mother, Father is right. The Professors have confirmed that it's Liza. So please don't do this to yourself..." The son steps in, backing up his father.

"Not you too, Daniel! I'm going to check whether you like it or not." Her husband and son are right. She or them are not ready to see the state Liza's corpse is in right now...

She flings the sheet off Liza's body before anybody can stop her. We brace ourselves for their incoming wrath. Everything is silent though. But we can clearly see they're going to explode anytime soon now.

"This isn't her. This isn't Liza. This isn't our baby girl." She flat out denies. We see the father clenching his fists and walking towards his wife. He drags her away from the corpse of their only daughter. The son steps forward and goes stony cold and grits his teeth with a look of pure rage in his now cold blue eyes.

"Elizabeth, don't be like this. You know it's our princess." Her husband says softly, putting his arms around his now fragile wife.

"It isn't...It's not her..." Sobs start to break out of the mother. The father hugs her tight, shushing her, telling her it's going to be okay and their daughter wouldn't be happy seeing her like this. The son, Daniel, still stood by his dead sister's side. We feel like we're invading their privacy...

"You, over there by the fourth bed." The son says, not turning around, obviously meaning me.

"You and your friend were the one who found my sister's...body correct? In the forest not far from the Herbology classes."

"Yes." I answer, feeling intimidated, looking down at my hands. Are they going to turn on me now? Yell at me for not finding her before all this happened to her decaying body?

"Thank you." I look up at him. He's continues to not look at me but takes the sheet his mother flung before and gently puts it over his sister until her waist. Then he takes off one of his many bracelets, which by the way how can a guy have so many bracelets, and puts it in his sister's hands. Then he puts the sheet over his sister gently as if he's tucking her into bed for the night. Except we all know she will never open her eyes ever again.

* * *

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	7. Amnesia, Old Memories, and Running

Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter. Things are about to change dramatically. We hope you enjoy!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. **_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

We watch as Michelle escorts Liza's family out the door. Apparently her parents and their parents are friends. She, Liza and her brother Daniel, had met each other in a formal party and became friends soon after that. Michelle won't be back for a while. So most chances we would see her tomorrow.

"So how's your head, Jennifer?" Tamara asks, sitting down at the end of Jennifer's hospital bed. Jennifer nudges her with her foot, telling her to get off. She likes to have her personal space and doesn't like people touching her that much.

"It's killing me. My ribs aren't helping." She grumbles.

"Now who told you to take a Chimera head on when you don't know a way to take it down, much less the correct spells?" I lecture her. She sticks out her tongue at me and I roll my eyes at her immaturity.

"Not everyone is like you Natalie. Reading every book you see and having no fun at all." She snaps at me. I narrow my eyes at her.

"Don't turn this on me, Jennifer. You should have at least thought things over before doing something that dangerous." I rebut back. I sense a fight is coming between us.

"Okay, stop it you two. We all don't want a repeat of first year, do we?" Tamara interrupts before it gets out of hand. Jennifer rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Stop it. Seriously." Tamara warns Jennifer.

"Fine, fine." Jennifer says. I turn away rolling my eyes and face full of annoyance.

"Can someone fill me in on what happened? How did I get saved?" Jennifer demands.

"I heard from Bianca, that after she sent up the red flares into the sky two times, you got knocked to the ground by the Chimera. You hit your head pretty hard against the ground." Tamara begins explaining.

"Stupid mutant cat chicken..." We heard Jennifer grumble.

"You fainted as it was about to eat you. She was sending spells at it to get it away from you." Tamara continues. "But it just ignored her and continued trying to eat you. It actually was about to succeed when Professor McGonagall zapped it away from you. Then Professor Dumbledore turned the Chimera to ashes, while Madame Pomfrey got you and Liza's body to the Hospital Wing. Bianca was escorted to her dorm by Professor Longbottom and McGonagall."

"Oh ok. Can you guys leave now please. I want to sleep." Jennifer says. "Sure." I answer and we both leave the room, closing the door quietly. We start to walk into the halls that lead to the library. "Hey Natalie, do you think Liza died because she got mauled by the creatures in the forest or was it by something else?" Tamara asks as quietly as she could, enough for me to hear.

"I don't know. Even if there were evidences of her being murdered, it's long gone by now. Remember the state of her body now? It's almost beginning to decay badly and at least 1 third of her flesh was eaten by a creature. So there's no way to know." I answer back in a soft voice.

"It could also be the work of William Fabray III too. He did escape remember?" Tamara suggests. It's a good point. He could have done this and Liza is one of Michelle's friends, who made him so mad...It could be revenge.

"True. But we don't know for sure." I answer. "But how could he even get into the school's enchantments, especially with all the Aurors around?"

Tamara shrugs. "You're the Ravenclaw here. You usually figures these things out." She answers with a teasing tone to her voice. With that again?

"Hey, just because I'm the only one in Ravenclaw here, doesn't mean I always figure it out. You guys can easily be in Ravenclaw if you wanted to be at the Sorting." I point it out.

"You always do though." Tamara teases again. I roll my eyes and walk away. "Oh come on, Nattie!"

"Don't call me that!" I tell her.

"Why not? You let Brian do it." She points out.

"That was when we were eight! That's different! Besides I won't let Brian call me that now!" I yell at her.

"Call you what?" I hear a voice from behind me. Oh shoot. It's not Brian right? Not Joey using a voice change charm? I'm begging all people who are listening right now.

"Calling her Nattie, like when you guys were eight." Tamara smirks and crosses her arms in front of her chest. I hate it when she's like this...Is it the lighting or is Brian actually flushing a little bit? I am just going to ignore that fact...maybe Tamara won't notice...

"Hey Brian, are you blushing?" Tamara teases him, going towards him. Brian gets even redder. Nooo, he actually is blushing! Tamara's smile gets even wider and starts laughing. "Hahaha, you guys are too funny. I'm going to leave you guys so you guys can catch up. See ya later!" She waves goodbye and leaves. Don't leave me here! I scream in my head.

"Wait, why are you leaving?" Brian asks after Tamara. That's exactly my question.

"I said for you guys to catch up! Have fun! Bye!" Tamara yells and runs in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower, leaving us in the dust. How can she leave me like that? She knows I feel uncomfortable with him, especially after knowing our crazy past story!

"Uhhh...Hi Natalie." Brian greets awkwardly. Oh god, why? Why does this have to happen to me? I can already feel a heavy blanket of awkward just waiting to fall on us. What makes it worse was that when we were little, we used to always hold hands. Adults would tease us about someday being a couple madly in love. It makes me want to bang my head on the wall.

I stare down at the ground. "Er, Hi."

Sometimes the most crazy things can be happening, but there's always that one thing that is drilled in your mind. It's the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about before you sleep. Sometimes it's out of worry, anger, envy, any emotion out there. Even love. That's what drives me crazy, because lately, a constant image of Brian and I as eight-year-olds holding hands is glued in my head. And for once, studying doesn't seem to be losing it's grip. It's just stuck.

It's probably the longest thing that my brain took to progress in. I'm bewildered that we were once as close at two crossed fingers and that I would _forget_.

Here's the thing. I don't really forget everything, trust me, it's both a gift and a curse. I remember taking my first steps as a baby. I remember having trouble blowing out my first candle on my birthday. I remember crying because Santa Claus forgot to eat the cookies and drink the milk I left for him. I remember my first injury. I remember how shocked everyone was when they first saw Joey open and reveal his bright green eyes. I remember almost everything.

Apparently Brian and I were inseparable. Probably 9.5/10 of the time we were together. Like what?! Did that mean we went to the same restroom?! Does that mean we constantly had sleepovers?! Yeah, we did. Sleepovers that is. We did _not _go to the same restroom. That is just asking for a nightmare to happen. Shivers.

Looking back at it, I remember absolutely nothing about Brian, not a thing. I practically didn't know he existed until I came to Hogwarts and now that I think about it, it wouldn't have been a bad thing. Would have saved me a heck load of hours of sleep.

But seriously though. I don't remember anything. When I think of eight-year-old Brian, my head is just...blank. It almost scares me.

I don't remember what he looked like back then. Is his hair the same? Did he wear glasses back then? I have no idea. None. Nothing.

What's his middle name? Does he even have a middle name?! See, I'm a terrible best friend. Maybe that's why everyone seems to be against me now. Just watch, Michelle is going to turn her heel on me and leave like I'm just a worthless pile of trash. Because that's what I feel like I am. I feel worthless. I feel stupid and I feel like I don't even deserve to even talk to him.

I forgot about him. Forgot everything about him. We were best friends, BFF's would probably be a better term for it. In a single day, everything was just thrown away. It was thrown away because of stupid eight-year-old me. I let my curiosity get the better of me and this is what happened.

This is what happened just because I wanted to know what. Because I wanted to see something I didn't see everyday. Because I was stupid enough to drag him in this with me.

Liza didn't deserve what happened to her, but right now, I honestly feel like I do. I honestly feel like something is eating me away right this minute, and it's shattering me like broken glass and I'm just walking right over it.

I suddenly feel two warm hands clasp on my shoulders. "Natalie are you alright? You look really pale right now." I don't say anything, my head too fuzzy to find the words. My throat is too tight to release a sound. So instead I just nod, but that only made Brian look more worried.

"Maybe you had a rough day, just walk it off." He says, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and holding my arm with another like he knew I needed the support. I do, I just don't think his support is the best for me right now.

Brian's face twists with concern. "Natalie, you're scaring me right now. Are you okay? Is there anything I can do for you?"

I press my palm against my forehead, it felt abnormally hot. Am I getting sick? A fever perhaps? My head feels like a tornado, spinning at rapid speed trying to pick everything up along the way.

"Natalie...? Answer me please. Say something to me. Anything. Just say something, you're really scaring me right now." Brian continues, panic clear in his voice.

Wilma. Jennifer's parents. Liza's parents. Daniel. Liza. Everything seems to be spinning around me uncontrollably. Their faces looked fuzzy, almost too fuzzy to know for sure they are who I'm seeing. My knees feel like they are on fire, they feel like they are going to give up on me any minute.

I'm sweating, I suddenly realised. Why am I sweating? What's happening? What's going on with me?

"Natalie..." Brian's voice darts into my thoughts. I look up at him. He looked normal, like he always does, his face is still twisted with concern. His brows are still dipped together. His eyes are still searching mine. The only thing off was him. There's three Brians. All fuzzy and hazy, like he's made of fog.

I swallow the enormous lump that was in my throat. "Brian...?"

"Yeah?" He asked, his voice sounded small and distant. That's when I gave up. My knees lost their strength to hold me up and I fell. I braced myself for the impact, only, it never came. Instead, I felt a pair of strong arms around me. I almost forgot they were there the entire time.

Everything was a blur of colours, like a camera out of focus. I remember taking pictures of birds with my dad. I remember he would steal some of mine to put them on his blog. I remember how excited he got when he found the perfect angle and the lighting was just perfect to capture to beautiful colours on the screen in front of him.

But this time, the battery died, and everything in front of me disappeared into a pit of darkness.

* * *

At first everything was dark, but then, suddenly a light switches on like a spotlight on a stage. I squinted my eyes until I got the chance to gather my surroundings. The room was dark other than the single light in the corner where I was standing. The room was square, I noticed, it was no bigger than a dorm at Hogwarts. Only the room was pretty much empty. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, they were all of cold gray stone.

We're in a dungeon. The bars locking me in are black and solid. Something is wrong, something feels wrong. I suddenly realise that I'm not in the dungeon alone. There are three bodies with me and they were deadly still. I heard a sharp cry of pain, sending my nerves going wild. I immediately recognized the voice, and started to look around hopelessly. I know her. But who was it?

Before I can progress another thought, the light that once shone dimly in the corner grew brighter and brighter. I raise my arms and hook them over my eyes to cover them. It was useless though, because everything still seemed to slip away from me just like that.

I think it's safe now, I thought. With some hesitation, I allow myself to open my eyes and look around. My

* * *

eyebrows meets, what, where am I? The room was long and narrow with multiple beds pressed against the light walls. The beds were singles, covered with plain white sheets. A couple people were laying there silently asleep. One I noticed had a black eye, he had light auburn hair and looked like he was at least 15 years old.

In the bed next to me, I saw a girl lay there, her body moving up and down as she breathes in and out. She has curly black hair and was bandaged like a mummy. Her body and face were angled towards me for some reason, as if she fell asleep knowing I was here.

Next to me, someone was snoring lightly. I look at him. He's laying back into his chair, an open book laying in his lap as his head tilts away from me, just enough for me to see his face. He had dark brown hair, almost black. He's wearing robes with some blue lining along the hem. I watched as his shoulder moved up and down slightly at a steady pace.

I shifted my position, suddenly deciding it was uncomfortable. After moving just a centimeter, the boy stirs awake beside me. I freeze.

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes lightly, be blinks and looks at me. His eyes are like two emeralds, vivid and bright, glinting as light hits them. His face breaks into a wide smile when he sees me. I blink. Why is he so happy? How long was he here? Who is he?

"Oh, thank god you're alright!" He says, reaching over for a hug. "I was so worried about you!"

He was just about to grab me when I shift at the last minute. Why does he want to hug me? Why was he worried? I'm fine aren't I?

I watch as his smile disappears, showing a face of both hurt and worry. I didn't take the time to feel bad though. One question was circling my head, who was he? Why does he want to hug me?

A whack of pain shoots through my chest. Was he my boyfriend? I mean he wanted a hug so...

Green Eyes reaches for my hand, but I yank it away from his reach. Giving him a look of question. Now he wants to hold hands? Green Eyes bites his lip for a second. "I'll be right back. Stay here alright?"

He says, putting his book down on the nightstand table that's next to my bed. He gets up and leaves the room. I blink thinking what I should do. Seriously, who is he? Why does he want me to stay? Why does he want to hug me? Why does he want to hold hands? Why was he worried about me?

A million questions were circling my head, so I did the first thing that I thought of. I remove the blanket that is around me revealing a hideous looking nightgown. I fling my legs over the side of the bed. I need answers, and I'm not going to get them if I stay.

* * *

I felt like a fish out of water. Everywhere I went everyone looked at me like something was wrong with me. I don't think much of it though, I mean, look at what I'm wearing! Everyone was dressed in black robes, like the one Green Eyes was wearing. Many of them wore the exact same one, with blue lining, but I also noticed more. A group of them were wearing robes trimmed with scarlet. Another group with canary yellow lining. I noticed a really pretty blonde with green lining that matched her green eyes.

Green Eyes. The boy's face immediately shoots back into my train of thoughts. His look of worry and concern. Who was he and how does he know me?

"Natalie!" I heard something call in the distance. I continue walking, whoever Natalie was, she better get going or she is going to make a certain someone really pissed. "Natalie!" The voice calls again. A couple more eyes lingered on me longer than necessary, but I continue to ignore them. Don't they know staring is rude? Everyone seems to lack manners lately.

First Green Eyes and now everyone else. Who do they think I am?

"NATALIE, STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!" the voice screams. That girl sure knows how to yell, I thought. I bet she broke a number of ears drums doing it.

I open a door and slip in, not wanting to be apart of that scene. Right after I hear the door click behind me, I hear it get swinged open again. Then slammed close. The noise was enough to make me stop on my tracks like everyone else. Only, all eyes seem to be on me.

That's when I felt a hand grasp my shoulder tightly. I suddenly feel scared. What does this person want with me?! Maybe they've just mistaken me for someone else. Yeah, I think that's it.

The girl spins around so that she's facing me. I saw something that I didn't expect to see. The girl. She's...She's shorter than me.

Her glare was deadly and could kill me right then and there. I close my eyes, she's going to punch me. She's going to punch me over and over again. I waited, but nothing came. I open one eye to look at her. She had the most confused look in her brown eyes.

"Why did you keep chasing after me?" I demand at her. She looks taken back. "Natalie, I was worried, how can I NOT follow you? Especially when you're running around just in a hospital gown." I give her a blank stare.

"This is a hospital gown? What kind of hospital gown is this? And who are you calling Natalie?" I interrogate her. The short girl gives off an annoyed vibe and puts her hands on her hips. She seems to be scary..."It's a Hogwarts Infirmary hospital gown. You should know especially after seeing Jennifer and I admitted there so many times. Of course, I'm calling you Natalie. Who else?" She asks, as if it's so obvious. But it's not. To me anyway.

"I'm not Natalie. What are you talking about?" I ask her, feeling very annoyed. I'm not Natalie...am I? Then a flashback came.

_I was playing in a place that seems to be a playground. Besides me there was a little boy; he's a little chubby, especially in the cheeks. He has big dark expressive eyes behind simple glasses. The boy is wearing a huge smile on his face, making him look cute. _

"_Hey Nattie! Let's go to the swings! I'll push you first, then you push me. Alright?" He asks, looking innocent but has a mischievous vibe in his tone. _

"_Okay, let's go!" I say, sounding higher than what my voice is now. _

"_I'll race ya there! Ready, set go!" He yells, and runs past me, getting a head start. "Hey ! That's not fair Brian, I wasn't ready!" I exclaim, running to the swings, ready to smack him with my teddy bear. _

I shake my head, trying to get the dizziness out of my head, after the random flashback.

"Natalie, are you okay?" The girl asks, looking concerned.

I shake my head and cover my ears with my hands, which were ice cold. "Stop. Stop! Stop calling me Natalie!"

"What are you talking about? Your name is Natalie! What's wrong with you today?" the short girl tries to correct me and steps forward to get me to listen.

"No, my name is Nattie!" I yell at her.

"Nattie? Are you feeling okay? The last time I heard, you didn't want to be called Nattie whatsoever..." The girl continued to talk, but I refused to listen. I just kept my hands planted on my ears trying to block out everything what she says. I continue to shake my head self consciously. Shut up. Why won't this girl shut up.

I feel her hand grab onto my wrists, trying to pry them away from my ears. I've never felt so weak, because I let her. "Natalie, calm down. It's going to be okay."

I shake my head more, as if trying to make my point. "No. Let go of me. Just let me go. Please. Just let me go!" I say, my voice sounded like it was ready to break into tears. People were beginning to gather, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get out of this place.

"Natalie-" The girl started again.

My blood began to boil, my ice cold hands grew hot with sweat. "Don't. Call. Me. _Natalie_!" I exclaim at the top of my lungs. And then I did something that surprised me the most.

I punched her.

It was hard, I didn't think my arm had the ability to swing that fast. The worst part was, I didn't feel sorry one bit. The girl's face whips to the side as she stumbles backwards bewildered. She clutched her cheek for a moment dumbfounded. She turned to look at me with disbelief in her eyes. She was shaking her head slightly. I didn't know if it's in a 'oh-that-girl-is-going-to-get-it" way. But judging her, she can easily beat me up is she wanted to.

The dead silence among the crowd didn't help. So I ran. I ran The fastest I've ever run before. I ran until my body wouldn't let me anymore. I just ran.

I don't know how far I went, but I was out of breath, my throat felt raw. My legs feel half dead. What just happened?

"Natalie!" The same voice calls from behind me. I close my eyes. No. It can't be. Please, not her again. Just please. "Natalie!" She calls again, her voice grower clearer and clearer as she nears her destination; Me.

"Natalie." She says, breaking to a stop. My back was to her, I don't know whether I should turn around or not. I just kept my eyes closed, even though I know she won't disappear; it just felt better. "Natalie, don't be so immature. That's Jennifer's job."

"Don't call me immature! Get away from me!" I scream at her. I'm surprised my throat is still able to take it.

"No." The girl insists. "You have to come with me. I won't do anything bad to you, I promise. Just come. You really need it right now."

I take two steps back every step forward she takes. I feel like she's a tiger and I'm just her next dinner. I'm scared she'll just kill me right then and there. I feel alone. I feel vulnerable. I feel broken.

"No...No..." I mutter, my voice finally giving in. She takes a couple steps closer. "Come on Natalie. Trust me, we've been friends for the past three years now...I won't have to hurt you if you just come with me peacefully...You need your medicine..."

"So you are going to hurt me!" I accuse her.

"No I'm not and I won't."

I shake my head. "No. You're using me..."

"Natalie-" She starts. I go to punch her again, only this time something stopped me. A hand. But it wasn't the girl's. It was a boy's. I look up to see a boy who was at least two inches taller than me. He has dark eyes that look like they can hide almost anything.

I feel two strong arms wrap around my shoulders. "Nattie, stop. Please, stop."

That voice. I can recognize it anywhere. Brian.

* * *

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	8. Flying Chairs, Screams and Flipped Bed

Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter. We hope you enjoy!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Tamara's POV**_

I watch as Natalie relaxes and falls in Brian's grasp. Man this is getting intense. I walk over to Michelle, "You okay?"

She nods in response. Her left cheek looked slightly bruised. Man, who knew Natalie could throw such a hard punch. "I was actually planning to stun her to calm her down. It would be easier to drag her to the Hospital Wing that way." She shrugs her shoulders, talking as if we're talking about the weather. I give her a disturbed look. She would actually do that to Natalie?

"Hey, only if she gave me another punch. Self defense you know. And if she tries to run again." She defends herself. I raise my eyebrow at her, giving her a disapproving look. "I didn't do it okay? That's what matters and that she's calmed down. I knew those two would make a cute couple..." She trails off.

I shift my gaze at Natalie then back at Michelle, reminding her she is still there. "Yeah, I know. We need to get her back to the Hospital Wing. She needs to take her medication." She says.

"Yeah. Hey Nattie, we need to get you back to the Hospital Wing. We promise that we won't do anything bad to you." I try to convince and make her feel safe.

She glances nervously at Michelle. "Do you want me to leave or something? It's clear she's giving me weird looks." She asks. Natalie still looks like she wants to bolt out of here, but Brian kept her there.

"Brian, let go of her." I ask him, hoping Natalie wouldn't try to run away. He releases her and Natalie just stands there frozen. She glances between each of us, other than Brian, with the biggest question mark in her eyes.

Lewis nudges me. I jump a little, forgetting he's there. "The medicine won't work on her case."

"What?"

"It won't work. She lost her memories a couple years ago right? Now, she will only remember what she forgot that year. Everything else is history."

My heart sinks. "So she won't remember anything?"

He shrugs. "It's a fifty-fifty chance. Only time will tell, you can't do anything to stop it from happening or speed it up."

"How do _you_ know?" Michelle demands, clearly not believing him.

"I did research on it before." He says simply, his voice dull and flat. "The same thing actually happened to my sister. She wasn't so lucky though." He checks his watch. "I better get going. Tell me if I can do anything else." He tells me before walking away. Michelle looks at him suspiciously as he left.

"Alright, Nata- Nattie. Come on, let's go." Michelle offers in a soft voice. Natalie stands there crossing her arm over her chest. Not in a mean way, more like a vulnerable way.

"Come, on." Brian urges calmly. "Everything will be alright."

Natalie obediently follows like a little puppy dog, she only listens to Brian seeing he's the only one she really remembers. Michelle just stares at them leaving. "Okay, that was...I'm going to pretend not to be offended." I give out a small laugh and give her a pat on the back.

"But why do you think she lost her memories though?"

I shrug. "I honestly don't know. It's not like she bumped her head or anything. Brian said she just fainted."

"This is weird." She remarks.

"Our years so far have been weird; currently we haven't had a single normal one." I tell her.

"True." She agrees.

Michelle rubs her sore cheek. "Remind me to never get on her bad side ever again." I give her a smile.

"Oh yeah, I haven't gotten around to ask you yet. How are you and Lewis?" I tease. She gives me a weird look.

"Why are you asking?" She eyes me suspiciously. "Did Jennifer put you up to this?" She accuses.

I give her a confused look. "Put me up to what?"

"Nevermind. It was okay for a first date. First time where we actually had a real conversation without arguing in some way." Michelle shrugs her shoulders.

"What did you guys do?" I ask, getting curious.

"I heard from Natalie, that Jennifer admitted to spying on us. You can ask her for the details after she gets better."

"Okay then." I say, knowing the subject is closed.

"Let's go to the Hospital Wing. Natalie should be calmed down by now." Michelle says, walking to the Hospital Wing. I take long strides to catch up to Michelle.

* * *

"Okay...maybe she hasn't calmed down yet." Michelle says, as we hear crashes from inside the Hospital Wing. Where is Madame Pomfrey when you need her?

"Calm down Natalie!" I hear Brian say from inside.

"We should stop her before she destroys the place." Michelle says and opens the door. I follow her in and is taken back by the damage Natalie has done. The curtains that divide each bed are knocked down to the ground or ripped out and the bars are broken. I also see Jennifer on her bed, looking completely freaked out and has her arms up in defense. Other students look the same as Jennifer; they all look shocked and scared. Empty beds are messed up, jars of herbs and potions are smashed on the ground. I'm sure Madame Pomfrey is going to explode after seeing all this. Overall, the Hospital Wing looks like centaurs and trolls have had a party in this room.

In the middle of all this mess is, Natalie.

Brian is trying to get close to her, without getting hit by something. "Nattie, stop please! They're not going to do anything bad to you, I swear. So please put that chair down!" Brian pleads and ducks as a chair flies to where his head had been a second ago.

Michelle sighs. "What do you think we should do about Natalie?" She asks me. Then I see a stool coming towards our heads.

"I'm Nattie! Not Natalie!" She exclaims. "Sheesh, fine fine, Nattie." Michelle grumbles.

"How are we going to get her to calm down and without being hit?" I ask, stepping out of the way of an airborne medicine jar.

"We can stun her." Michelle suggests, reaching in the pocket of her robes where she keeps her wand.

"Then she wouldn't trust us; after seeing our wands pointed at her she'll freak out even more." I counter.

"I can actually just knock her out. That or have Brian hug her again." Michelle says, ducking, getting out of the way of a pillow.

"Nattie, calm down! We just want you to rest." I continue to try to convince Natalie.

"How do I know that you're not tricking me?" She challenges.

"Brian wouldn't do anything bad; we will have him with you so you wouldn't be alone." Michelle also tries to convince her.

Natalie finally starts to looks like she has calmed down. She sets down a unknown box with a FRAGILE stamp on it. If she threw is I think Madame Pomfrey would have thrown all of us out of here, all the way to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"What in the name of Merlin, happened!?" A voice screams behind us. Wow. Madame Pomfrey has the greatest timing doesn't she? She comes right after we get Natalie to calm down. We turn around, seeing Madame Pomfrey seething with rage. Behind the Head Nurse, Joey and Zoey looking worried. Who wouldn't be worried after seeing someone like Natalie freak out so much in this way? I mean, let's get real here. This is Natalie we are talking about. Natalie freaking Xiang. What most people would look and think would be 'the book worm' or 'the know it all'.

"Natalie, did something happen to you?" Joey asks, taking a step forward. His face shows total concern for his cousin.

Catching me off guard, Natalie practically scoffs. "Oh great, Green Eyes is back..." I catch Joey raise his eyebrows at her. Zoey just rubs his arms affectionately.

"Nattie..." Brian warns as if she's a little girl that has been disobedient.

"Nattie?" Zoey questions.

"_What?!_" Natalie growls in the most ignorant snarl I've ever heard in my life. Never would I have expected to hear it coming out of Natalie's mouth. Maybe we really don't know her as much as we thought we did; she's always been pretty secretive about most things.

"Whoa, Natalie calm down. What happened?" Zoey tries to calm her down.

"STOP CALLING ME NATALIE!" She screams and lifts up another chair. Then Michelle takes the chance to tackle Natalie down.

"You need to calm yourself down!" Michelle yells while trying to take the chair out of out Natalie's clutches.

"Get off me!" Natalie growls, struggling underneath Michelle.

"Be careful, don't hurt Natalie!" Joey says, worried for his cousin's safety.

"Hey, who do you think gave me this bruise on my cheek huh!?" Michelle snaps at him, sounding irritated. She finally gets the chair out of Natalie's hands, and pins her on the ground without much trouble.

"Madame Pomfrey, can you _please_ give Natalie a Sleeping Draught?" Michelle asks a little out of breath. Then the Head Nurse dashes to the Potion cabinet, getting out a purple liquid in a regular potion bottle. "Get off of me! You're going to do something to me!" Natalie screeches. Madame Pomfrey nears her, and as she gets closer, Natalie struggles even more. But Michelle has a firm grip on her.

"Tamara, get over here. You need to help open her mouth and get it down her throat." Michelle demands. I give her a blank stare. How can I do that?! Forcing someone's mouth open, and then force them to drink it.

"Fine, Joey get over here. Don't give me that look, Lu." Michelle glares at him. Joey rolls his eyes and walks over to the crowd. He kneels down beside Natalie and leans in.

She leans away from him and hisses, "What are you doing?" He ignores her and pinches her nose. Hard.

"Ow! Let go!" Natalie says, in a nasal voice. With her mouth open, Madame Pomfrey takes the chance to pour some of the potion in. After pouring it in, Joey quickly places a hand over her mouth, forcing her to swallow the potion.

Natalie's eyes roll to the back of her head, as she goes slack. Michelle sighs out of relief, happy that it's over. She gets off of Natalie, careful that she wouldn't hurt her and sits by her side. "Can someone explain to me what happened to Natalie for her to be like this?" Zoey demands, giving Michelle and I pointed glares. What did we do? All we did was the same as them. Trying to get her to calm down.

Joey rubs his temples. "Please don't start pointing fingers..."

"Joey's right...Sorry." Zoey apologizes.

"It's okay. Just help me get Natalie on a bed and possibly put some enchantments for her to stay on the bed if she wakes up. I'm pretty sure she'll go nuts after waking up." Michelle says, looking at Natalie. For the first time all day, she looked peaceful. She looked like herself again; it's almost like some sort of demon has taken over her body.

Jennifer pokes her head from behind the covers where she has been hiding throughout the recent crisis. "Is it over...?"

"Do you see things flying everywhere and hear screaming?" Michelle asks, rolling her eyes.

Jennifer glares at Michelle. "Sheesh, I only asked if it was over." Jennifer grumbles, still glaring at Michelle. The person who's being glared at, glares back at her, and turns away. After she turns away, Jennifer sticks out her tongue at her back.

"Zoey, grab her legs. I'll get the arms." Michelle directs. Zoey walks over to Natalie's feet and grabs her legs. While Michelle grabs Natalie under the arms. "On the count of three, we'll lift her up. One...two...three." Both of them lift her up at the same time. They walk slowly, and have a firm grip on Natalie, making sure she doesn't fall. After reaching an empty bed, they carefully set her down. Then Madame Pomfrey comes back, enchanting the bed herself to make sure Natalie stays down even after she wakes up.

"I'm not going to let someone destroy my Hospital Wing again..." Madame Pomfrey mutters under her breath, looking at Natalie in annoyance.

"Oh shoot, I need to go to the library to pick up a book before curfew! See you later guys. I will talk to you later, Joey." Zoey suddenly remembers. She leans in to give Joey a kiss on the cheek and waves us goodbye before leaving the Infirmary.

"Bye!" Joey yells out after her.

"Oh dang that reminds me...I need to talk to my partner in Potions about tomorrow. See you later, guys." Michelle says, rushing out of the door.

Now it just leaves Joey, Jennifer, Brian and I. No doubt he's going to ask about why Natalie went berserk.

"So, do you mind telling me what happened to Natalie?" Joey asks, turning to me. Yup. I'm right.

"From what I've heard, she just fainted out of nowhere. She was fine before all this happened." I answer.

"That is really strange...Where did you hear this from?" Joey continues to ask more.

I put my hands up, telling him to calm down. "Ask Brian. He was there when Natalie fainted." I say pointing at Brian who was sitting beside Natalie's bed.

"Hey, Brian. What were you and Natalie doing before she...turned out like this." He asks Brian with a stern look on his face.

"We were just talking and she just suddenly blanked out on me. She started clutching her head in pain. After that, she just passed out. I took her to the Hospital Wing, and I had to leave for awhile because I had to do some homework that was due tomorrow with Lewis. After a while, when we were coming back from the library, we heard someone screaming for Natalie. We followed the chaos and we finally caught up; she was about to swing a punch at Michelle until Lewis stepped in-"

"Wait a minute. Lewis, stopped it? Lewis out of all people?" Joey asks, sounding incredulous. Both Brian, and I nod. "Whoa seriously? You guys aren't lying, are you?" Jennifer demands, eyeing the both of us, trying to see if there was a lie. Which there wasn't.

"We aren't. Why would we lie about something like this? If I made a joke out of this Lewis would kick my butt all the way to the top of Gryffindor Tower." Brian states, with a straight face. I don't know why, but I find that funny.

"Yeah, he would." I back him up.

"Anyways, I got her to calm down then-" Brian tries to continue.

"Wait, how? We all tried to get her to calm down. Even I couldn't. What did you do that made her calm down in the first place?" Joey practically interrogates.

Brian suddenly takes a sudden interest in his shoes. "Uhh...I _hugged_ her." He mutters. Joey narrows his eyes at the poor guy.

"What did you say?" Joey demands, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His normally bright green eyes are dark with accusations, annoyance and suspicion. To sum it all up, he looks intimidating right now.

"...I h-h-hugged her." Brian stutters, already taking a few steps away from Joey.

"...Come again?" Joey asks again, crossing his arms. "Without stuttering please."

"I hugged her..."

"...Oh...What was her reaction..?" He says with a suddenly blank expression, as if it didn't matter at all.

"She just calmed down I guess..." Brian says sounding unsure. He looked almost scared to tell him Natalie's reactions

A small smile curls on the corner of Joey's lips. "Dude, do you like her...?"

Brian suddenly reveals all kinds of nervous. "Uhhh what makes you think that..?" He looks at him hesitantly. His face became bright red like a tomato. Jennifer and I exchange glances.

Joey bursts out laughing. "Haha, you totally dig her, man!"

"No, I don't!" Brian insists. He immediately stands up and takes a step forward. Before I know it, he trips over his chair and lands face down onto the floor.

Joey chuckles lightly. "Whoa calm down there. Are you alright?"

I didn't know it was possible but Brian's face turns even brighter and is he...is he sweating? "Is it that hot in here?" I ask him.

"Uhh, yeah. I'm going to get some air and maybe some food."

Jennifer immediately jumps at him. "Ohh, can you get me some Rice Krispies? I'm starving."

"Uh, sure, I guess..." Brian says, heading to the exit but Joey stops him by grabbing his arm at the last minute.

"Hey Brian, you should stay though. You're the only one that can keep her sane apparently."

Brian shoots him a questioning look. "And how do expect me to do that?"

Joey just shrugs. " I know, hug her?" Brian just stares at him blankly. "What?"

"You know, hugging doesn't solve the world's problems, plus I'm hungry."

"Well your hugs solve this one so we are going to use it." Joey answers.

"But I'm hungry!" Brian reminds him.

"Where are my rice krispies?" Jennifer cuts in.

Joey's head snaps in her direction, as if he forgot she was there. "Fine I'll get some food." he turns to Brian. "You stay here."

He turns and leaves the infirmary just as Jennifer yells after him. "Wait! Do you know where to get the Rice Krispies?!"

Brian gently nudges her and whispers in her ear. " I don't think he heard you."

Jennifer just glares at him and punches his arm. "Ow! What was that for?!"

I reach into the pocket of my robes. "Here." I say, tossing her a rice krispie that she told me to hold onto for emergencies. Apparently this is what she would call an emergency. "Eat this and no more punching. He needs his arms ready in case Natalie goes insane again."

Brian just rubs his arm sorely. "Gee, thanks a lot." he turns to Jennifer and points to the rice krispie in her hand. "Hey, can I have some of that?"

"Heck no. Get your own." She says before munching on the rice krispie. Brian glares at her. I sigh. I reach into my pocket again to bring out another rice krispie and toss it to Brian. Jennifer widens her eyes at me. "Why are you giving that guy my rice krispies?!"

Brian just wiggles his eyebrows back and forth at her as he mockingly takes a big bite out of his snack. "Mmmm, so good..." He mutters louder than necessary.

Jennifer glares at him and looks down at her empty wrapper. "Do you have more? I'm still hungry."

I shake my head. "Nope, sorry. You'll have to wait for Joey to come." I don't think Jennifer was even listening to me, she was just watching Brian enjoy his (or should I say her) rice krispie as he swallows each bite in slow mode, emphasizing his mmm's at her. If Joey didn't walk in at that moment and Jennifer wasn't on bedrest, I bet she would have strangled him to the pulp.

Joey's eyebrows dip together and turns to me. "What happened between those two? And why is Brian...?"

"Jennifer. Rice krispies. Put the pieces together." Joey shrugs in understanding as if he is saying 'oh right, of course' with his shoulders.

"Food!" Brian and Jennifer both exclaim at the same time. They snap their heads to look at each other and glare. They turn away from each other with their noses in the air. Then there was dead silence, the only sound was Natalie's steady breathing and of course the rest of the patients in the Hospital Wing, chatting.

Suddenly, a deadly cough escapes Natalie's mouth. One after another, causing everyone to look in her direction. Her hands suddenly curl into fists and her face begins to grow red.

"Brian!" Jennifer suddenly exclaims.

"What?!"

"Hug her!" Jennifer answers. "Now! Hug her dude!"

"Do you really think hugging her will help anything right now!?" He demands back, his tone matching Jennifer's.

"Joey get Madame Pomfrey!" I exclaim.

At the exact same time, Jennifer says, "Joey get Michelle!"

We just turn to each other after. Jennifer shrugs. "What?! She knows how to handle her at this kind of situation!"

Before I know it, Madame Pomfrey bursts in through the door with Joey behind her. Wait, when exactly did he leave? Damn that guy is fast...

With one glance at Natalie, Madame Pomfrey rushes us out of the room. Even outside, I can tell from the loud, heart stopping sound that a bed was flipped over.

* * *

"Hey Tamara! What's going on? People told me, Natalie went psycho on everybody. She even punched Michelle in the face! Her of all people! She's just lucky that wasn't Melanie..." Lilly rambles.

"Whoa calm down, Lilly." I try to calm her down. I've just arrived in the common room and Lilly comes up practically interrogating me.

"Sorry, but you can't blame me." Lilly shrugs her shoulders. "Hearing someone like Natalie going berserk like that, it gets someone's curiosity up. Especially people like me." I got to admit it is true. Lilly is a person who would quench their curiosity even though it would get her into trouble most of the time. Of course, her curiosity is at an all time high right now after what had happened earlier today.

"Uhh...how do I say this..." I start, struggling to find a way to explain the situation to Lilly without her assuming or exaggerating things that will get out of hand. "She just lost her memories, that's all. She was just confused with these things around her so she panicked." I explain in the best way I could.

"Lost her memories? How?" Lilly gasps.

"Uhhh...I don't know..." I reply.

"You don't know? I thought you would know, since you're one of Natalie's best friends and all..." Lilly trails off.

"I don't know because I wasn't there with her when it happened." I tell her.

"Oh...then where's Natalie now?" Lilly continues to press for more information.

"She's in the Hospital Wing right now. Madame Pomfrey is taking good care of her right now." I say, not adding the part about her flipping over poor Jennifer's bed...with her on it. Thinking of it now, I really hope she's alright...But I know Jennifer would have to stay at the Infirmary a bit longer than before. I'm pretty sure she gotten hurt even more.

"Oh I see. But when you got here, Brian looked really...how I do describe it...disturbed? Creeped out? Something like that. What happened to him?" Lilly asks.

"He was shakened up. That's all." I give a short answer. It's not a lie so why not?

"Oh ok then. Anyways I'm so tired from doing all that homework..." Lilly says, looking a bit drained. Oh shoot. I didn't finish my homework yet! It's already 8pm too! "Did you finish your homework, Tamara?" Lilly asks.

"...No..." I answer.

"Seriously!?" Lilly asks, looking shocked. "You usually finish your homework quickly."

"Hey, I was busy the last few hours and you know why." I defend myself.

"Man, these days are just getting weirder and weirder. First the Slytherin student disappearing, then Natalie losing her memories and kind of...you know, and now this? What more is coming next?" Lilly sighs dramatically. I raise my eyebrow at her.

"Whatever, I need to start on it quickly. See ya later at our room." I wave goodbye to her. I watch her as she goes up the spiral staircase on the right that leads up to the girls' dormitories. I sit comfortably next to the Gryffindor Common Room fireplace and take out my homework. I sigh as I prepare my quill, ready to write. I need to hurry and finish up my homework.

* * *

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	9. Announcements, Hunger and Surprises

Hi everyone! Here's chapter 9! Enjoy.

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES AND POP TARTS.**_

* * *

_**Michelle's POV**_

I sigh irritably at the sight of me in the mirror. The bruise on my cheek has gotten worse than yesterday. It has this ugly black and yellow colouring. I wince as I touch it, seeing if it still hurts. I am so going to get Natalie for this after she gets her memories back. Well, if she ever does...

"Quit looking at the mirror like that, Michelle." Helda says behind me. I probably look very pathetic right now, whining over the bruise that Natalie gave me. I'm still pretty stunned that she actually punched me, plus, she actually flipped over Jennifer's bed. With her _in_ it! I mean seriously, that girl has muscles. I wouldn't be surprised if she slaps Tamara today for accidently calling her Natalie.

I never thought I would see the day when she would demand everyone to call her Nattie. Ever. That's like seeing Jennifer get old of rice krispies. We all know that is never going to happen. I'm pretty sure she would marry Snap, Crackle and Pop if she could. They would be the ideal boyfriends for her, probably providing her with all the rice krispies she could possibly ask for. Wait. Crackle is a boy, right? Oh whatever.

"Let's go, we need to go for breakfast." Helda says, pushing me out of the door. I reach for my bag on the way out. We walk down the stairs and at the bottom of the staircase, I see Keith leaning on the stair railing with his arms crossed. I feel myself slightly blushing at the sight.

When we reach the bottom, Keith stops leaning on the railing and faces us.

"Hey." He greets us.

"Hi." Helda and I greet back. Keith turns to me and his gaze lingers on the bruise on my cheek.

Oh shoot, I'm getting warm. "What?" I ask him thanking Merlin that I didn't stutter just now.

"Does your cheek hurt? I heard of what happened yesterday from my friends." He asks, looking at me with concern.

"Yeah, but it's not as big of a deal as you think." I answer.

Helda raises her eyebrow at me and crosses her arms in front of her chest. "Not a big deal? Just 5 minutes ago, you-"

"It is NOT a big deal." I repeat, glaring at Helda.

She rolls her eyes at me as if saying, 'Whatever you say'. I turn back looking at Keith. He was staring at us in amusement.

"So what's up?" I ask, trying to change the topic.

"Well, besides the fact that I'm bored to death around here, I'm fine." He smiles at me.

"Everyone's been bored around here ever since that crazed whacko, William Fabray the-whatever-number-he-is escaped from Azkaban. Will we ever even get a break around here? Last year we had a curfew too because of the attacks and that Michelle here was turned into a statue." Helda states. My insides boil at his name. I went through so much because of that old creep. If he's the one behind Liza's death, I WILL kill him myself. I clench my fists as I remember the images of Liza's body and the mourning of her family.

A hand waves over my face. "Hello? Michelle, Earth to Michelle?" Keith says, trying to get my attention. I snap out of my trance.

"Sorry. What were you saying?" I ask.

"I was just asking you if you wanted to hang out with me after classes. I mean if you're not busy with assignments and stuff." Keith proposes with a grin. I try to keep a straight, normal face. But in the inside, I'm a little...excited.

"Sure, but we would never know with Professor Snabe though." I add. It is true, Professor Snabe likes to surprise us with assignments and projects to do. Especially after the announcement of the curfew.

"'Kay then. We need to hurry for breakfast. Race ya. Loser gives up a quarter of their lunch." Keith grins before dashing away. I stand there for a second in shock. "Hey! You meanie! That's not fair!" I scream before running after him. I can hear Helda loudly laughing in the background.

* * *

"Ha! I beat you!" Keith says, rubbing his victory in my face.

I narrow my eyes at him. "You cheated, you jerk." I complain, out of breath as I catch up to him. He shrugs his shoulders and gives me a cheeky grin. I glare at him in response. I hear screams behind me. I don't need to turn around to see who it is. I bet anyone would know who had just screamed.

The Tanland Paradise.

Behind me, I can feel the murderous and jealous vibe practically oozing from them. Fangirls are seriously scary. I've seen them in action before when one of their fellow Tanmirer's tried to kiss Keith during Quidditch practice. It happened while we were flying in the air on our brooms. He was about to hit the Bludger when the fangirl suddenly zoomed up to him, puckering up her lips at him. He was caught by surprise and well, he hit the Bludger my way and I wasn't ready. I think you can tell what happened to me after that.

To sum it all up, the poor girl has been exiled from the fanclub and is still being bullied today. This happened at the beginning of the year and right now it's the beginning of October. We sit down beside each other, with me in the middle, between Keith and Helda.

"I'm soo hungry..." He says with a whining tone.

I roll my eyes at him. "It's coming out soon. Just wait." I tell him.

"I'm just wondering but...where's Jennifer?" He asks. How come he's asking about her all of a sudden? I feel jealousy creeping into my thoughts. But I told him anyway.

"Really? What happened?" Keith asks, sounding a little panicked. I feel my eye slightly twitching at that.

"I will tell you later, the food's here." I say, a bit stiffly. I can see the entrance from the school's kitchen opening. As soon as I mention it, he quickly turns around to see the entrance. I inwardly let out a sigh of relief. The house elves comes to our table first, thankfully, and sets down the plates besides the utensils that have already been set up. They snap their fingers and within a flash, our breakfast appears. I thank the house elf with a smile. The elf bows to me in response and also returns a smile too.

The three of us are about to dig in when Professor Dumbledore calls for attention.

"Good morning, students. I hope you've all had a wonderful night's rest and finished all your homework and such. Unfortunately, I have something very dreadful to inform you of." The Headmaster says with a sad smile. That alone got all of the students attention. I clench my hands into fists, knowing what he is about to say. The news about Liza's death. I cast a look of pity and sadness at Liza's best friend and close friends. They notice and nod in appreciation. Why can't Professor Dumbledore talk about good things? They're hardly ever good. I know it's not his fault and, he probably doesn't want to talk about it as much as we want to hear it but it's his responsibility to tell us.

"This has been a few days ago but now that we've cleared things up, I must tell you all of this sad incident. A girl, Liza Crawford, one of the third-year Slytherins was found dead in the forest near the greenhouses. She had probably been there for a few days, about the time that she had been missing. We do not know who has done this but the Auror's are working hard to try and figure out who could have done this. This incident shouldn't have happened. No one should have to fear that someone might break into the school; we shouldn't have to have extra enchantments and guards; we shouldn't even have to worry at all. This should be a safe place for everyone to learn and have a great seven years. I fear that Hogwarts is no longer a safe place. We will all do our best to increase security and more Aurors have been sent in to guard the school. Everyone must take this seriously as we don't want this to happen again. Follow the rules and hopefully this will end. That is all. Enjoy your breakfast and the rest of the day." Then he sits down. Chatters breaks out across the Great Hall.

I hear sobs and heart-pulling crying from far away. I take a glance at where it came from. The sight...is very pitiful and heart-wrenching. I see her friends clutching each other, sobbing and calling out for her name in sorrow.

"Liza!"

"How could have this happened!?"

"She didn't deserve this."

"I s-swear on her grave, I will g-get the person b-behind this." I hear one of her friends promising. I glance around the House table. All of them have a dark unreadable expressions. But I know what they're thinking on the inside. Someone will pay for messing with our house.

Then I hear one of the most offending things I have ever heard.

"Wow, that is the most nonsense I have ever heard. Why don't they just let us do what we want instead of coming up with a crappy excuse like this? As if someone actually died. Even if they did, she probably looked at herself in the mirror too long like how those Slytherins do, and didn't see where she was going. Then she ended up falling off the tower or something."

I slam my fork down onto the table. I turn to see the person who said it. It's a first year from Gryffindor. Talking stops, as everyone watches the spectacle. I walk to the first year and give her a death glare.

"What did you just say?" I say calmly but inside, I'm raging. How can those brats say that!? They didn't see how she ended up! Us Slytherins are certainly not like that either.

"I wasn't talking to you so why would I answer you?" The first year Gryffindor retorts, giving me a lazy glare as if I wasn't worth talking to. Now that I looked at her closely, she looks familiar. Didn't I see her at the Quidditch tryouts?

"It's my business as her friend. Now don't make me repeat myself again. WHAT did you say about her?" I hiss at her. She scoffs at me and stands up. Dang it, she has a good couple of inches over me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tamara getting out of her seat. She's probably thinking of trying to stop me from beating this brat to a pulp and getting detention.

"I said, that she's a self-absorbed freak like the rest of you Slytherins. She probably died not watching where she was going and fell off a tower." She sneers at me. I see one of her friends pulling at her robes, telling her to stop. I glare at her.

"She is...was not like that. She died in a horrible way, and you have no right to talk about her like that." I scold her. She's really getting on my nerves.

"You Slytherins always try to have things go your own way. I saw you on the Quidditch field. You probably paid the captain to let you on the team." She smirks at me, crossing her arms and cocking a hip. I take a deep breath trying to keep my anger in check. "What? Am I right, you shortie?"

"Hey, just because I'm a couple inches shorter than you doesn't mean you can give me this attitude." I scowl at her. "By the way, you shouldn't be the one talking. I saw you at the tryouts. You fell off the broom after someone threw the Quaffle at your way. That wasn't even 5 minutes into the practice game." I smirk at her. She turns red in the face from embarrassment and anger. I hear a couple of snickers across the room, particularly from the Slytherins.

"Well, at least I'm not some shortie who buys her way into the team." She shoots back at me. I narrow my eyes at her. She looks back at her table, wanting to see some support. She got some, but some of them are from first years who haven't even seen me play on the field. But the ones who did, looks aghast at her words.

"Do you want me to show you why I was one of Slytherin's Beaters for three years now?" I give her a creepy smile, preparing to sock her in the face. Then I feel a hand on my arm. I turn a bit to see that it's Tamara. Oh come on. Why won't she let me give one to her in the face. I don't care if I get into detention.

"Let it go, Michelle." Tamara whispers. I grit my teeth in frustration. Why is it always the Gryffindors who gets the last say? To say whatever they want in our faces and they won't even get into trouble? "Fine. But if she says one more thing...I'll be teaching her a lesson." I snap, turning back to my table.

"Ha! You Slytherins are cowards. You always will be." She says behind me. All Slytherins stand up at the insult, looking outraged.

"We'll show you who's a coward, you filthy Mudblood!"

You Gryffindors are always picking on us! We have enough of this!"

"You are going to regret saying those words, Mudblood."

Most of the Slytherins from the older years, draws their wands, ready to jinx the heck out of her. "What is going on here?" Professor McGonagall storms in our way with a stern face.

"Professor, I didn't do anything wrong. The Slytherins started it as usual, always insulting the Gryffindors." The damn brat accused us, trying to look innocent. "They even called me a Mudblood, especially her." She points at me. Some of the first years behind her nod in agreement, slightly smirking.

I glare at them in contempt. What's their problem?

"For Gryffindors, you're awfully dishonest." A fifth year hisses, still holding his wand up, aiming for the brat's face.

"Put your wand down, Mr. Sinclair." Professor McGonagall scolds him.

"We demand an apology. They dishonored our house name." Our head prefect, Montgomery Hudson demands, glaring at the Gryffindor table.

"What did we do?! We only said the truth!" One of the Gryffindor first years exclaim.

"ENOUGH!" Professor McGonagall yells, getting us to settle down. "All of you should be ashamed of yourselves! Arguing after we announced the death of one of your fellow students. I'm especially disappointed in Slytherin." She glares at me. The brat gives me a smug look.

"However, I'm also disappointed in you, Ms. Armstrong." Professor McGonagall turns to her. The smug look is wiped off her face, replaced with a scared look. Ha! What goes around comes around! I smirk at her.

"You've been saying things that are very inconsiderate for when there are people mourning. It's already been hard enough knowing one of their own had died but for someone to dishonour their name and memories like that. You are going to have detention, Ms. Armstrong. 150 points from Gryffindor." Professor McGonagall says with a stern face. I smirk at the thought of her cleaning the cauldrons in the Potions classroom.

"But will be joining you in the detention." I gape at the Professor. She can't be serious!?

"I don't-"

"I don't care as long both of you are here at 3:00 pm sharp tomorrow. You will be helping in the greenhouses. Is that understood?" She cuts Armstrong off.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall." I say, with a grim face. The girl just stayed silent. Then the Professor leaves in the direction of the teachers' table at the front.

"Anita, I pity you." One of her friends say behind her, giving her pitiful glances. I just glare at them as I go back to my seat, as Tamara gives me worried looks. I give her a small smile to tell her I'm fine. Yipee, aren't I excited for tomorrow?

* * *

"Why are you always getting detentions with Gryffindors?" Keith asks teasingly as we walk to the infirmary together. My entire morning has seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot; hopefully seeing Jennifer will help cheer me up a bit. She always seemed to with the outspoken thoughts of hers.

"Do you think I enjoy it?" I narrow my eyes at him, irritated.

"Hey calm down, I was just trying to cheer you up." He apologizes, giving me a one armed hug. I start to feel a little bubbly inside, butterflies in my stomach. I nervously and hesitantly return the hug. I feel a smile is coming onto my face. He hugs me a little harder and now is making my heart pound a little faster than usual. We usually do stuff like this but with him always starting the touching. He pulls away first.

"Now come on, let's see how Jennifer is holding up...oh and Natalie too." He turns to me and gives me arched eyebrow. "Or should I call her Nattie?"

I shrug, trying to ignore the sudden knot in my stomach. "Depends on whether you want to end up like Jennifer or not."

"Natalie it is then!" He exclaims enthusiastically. I snap my head over to look at him. Wait what did he just say? He just shrugs. "What? I can be in bed all day and not have to worry about anything. How much better can it get? Plus, all the members of the Tanland Paradise will get me all the chocolate frogs I want! It'll be paradise..."

I roll my eyes at him. Boys and their food. "You better work out after getting out of the Hospital Wing. I'm not letting your laziness bring the team down in games." I nag.

"Who says I'm lazy?!" He accuses. "Sometimes a guy just needs a break...preferably with plenty of food."

"Just watch yourself gain like 30 pounds."

"I don't gain fat."

"Just watch."

"I might, but I'll end up staring at myself with a mirror for years. It won't happen."

"Wait, everything will catch up to you. Then you won't be able to even ride your broom because you'll snap it in half."

He throws his head back and laughs. "Oh, now _that_ will be hilarious. Too bad it's never happening though."

I scoff. "Uh-huh. Yeah, right."

He snickers and holds the door open for me. "Ladies first."

I blush and step in, every time I'm in here it just bring back painful memories. It's not exactly a place I look back on and smile. It probably never will be. I see a bandaged Jennifer laying still in her bed, snoring lightly. She looks like a mummy. I shift my gaze to Natalie, who is sitting on her bed silently, watching us.

I give her a small smile. "Hey."

All I'm thinking is, where the heck is Brian?! Didn't I tell him to be with her as much as possible?! Boys, he's probably off eating some of Jennifer's rice krispies. Thank god she's not there to snap his neck. That's when I hear Keith's stomach growl.

I laugh. "Seriously? You're hungry?"

"What?!" He demands, narrowing his eyes at me mockingly. "I'm a man! I need my food to function! And seeing an entire basket of rice krispies right in my face is not helping!" He exclaims, pointing to the basket resting next to Jennifer's bed.

"Don't bother taking it. All your bones will be broken in seconds, even if Jennifer's in critical condition, it'll happen." I explain. "Trust me, she has this sixth sense. And it's for rice krispies."

"If I can get that much food at once then it's probably worth it..." He says thinking about it. Is this stupid boy seriously considering putting himself in the infirmary just for food?

The doors open, Brian comes in and to my surprise, with Lewis beside him. Wait what is _he_ doing in here? Does he even know Natalie's last name?

"Hey Brian." I greet casually, getting a nod in return. Lewis' eyes just flicker past me as if I'm not even standing there. That guy never changes does he? Either he hates my guts or just pretends I'm not in the room. I don't know which one is worse, being a nothing or a target with someone who constantly throws darts at you. He's probably the only person I've met that has blown jerk-meter to the top; that Armstrong girl is getting pretty darn close though. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Keith inching towards the basket of rice krispies. I walk over and grabs the basket away from him.

"No. Go get pop tarts instead. I don't want to add another person on my list to visit at the Hospital Wing." I scold him, setting it down on another bedside table.

"Oh come on, Michelle. Please, just one?" He pleads.

"No." I give him a stern look.

Natalie smiles as Brian and Lewis near her. "Hey Brian. Lewis."

My mouth drops. She gives me a punch in the face and she gives _him_ a freaking smile?! What is this?! I rage on the inside. Keith gives me a pat on the shoulder trying to give me comfort. Seeing now that Natalie has company, and Jennifer is asleep, there's really no point for me to stay here. I turn to the door.

"Keith, are you staying here? I'm leaving for the library." I ask, hoping he would leave with me.

"Nah, it's okay. I can watch over Jennifer for you." I frown at his answer. He never visited me when I got injured last year. Feeling upset, I answer, "'Kay then. See ya at the Common Room." I look up to see Lewis staring at me with an unreadable expression.

"What are you staring at?" I snap at him, not in the mood to deal with him. He just ignores me. Which made me feel even more angry.

"Don't be so mean to Lewis." Natalie defends. I scowl at her. I never thought it would be like this to Natalie of all people.

"Whatever." I spit out. I slam open the door, and leave, heading to the Black Lake to calm down.

Why does everything seem to be going wrong lately?

* * *

Tomorrow came sooner than I hoped it would have and I wasn't thankful for that. I honestly didn't want to see that Amelia or whatever her damn name was face. Just the thought of hearing her voice makes me want to scowl.

Maybe it's just me, but the moment you start to not like someone, everything they do seems to annoy me to death. Like today I caught her and some friend of hers outside doing homework. Not that I see it's possible for her to have any friends but whatever...anyway, she asked her friend if she could borrow her textbook because she forgot hers. She didn't do anything wrong, right? But it still itched on my skin.

She borrowed her textbook! Oh she is so...

See what I mean? See what I have to deal with? Like I want to do dishes with that girl! I mean has she ever heard 'respect your elders'? Does she seriously think that because she is literally only an inch taller than me that she can talk to me like that?

Oh and don't get me started on what she said about me buying my way into the Quidditch team...

That girl. Why? How? How is she a Gryffindor? Are Gryffindors these days always so damn jerk-ish?

The final bell rang alarming me that detention awaits. Oh joy.

* * *

Well that's all! We hope you all enjoyed it :)

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	10. Dream, Bee Burglar and Babysitter

Hi! Here's the next chapter. Enjoy :)

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Jennifer's POV**_

My eyes snap open after I hear door slam shut. Huh? I turn to see what's going on. I see Madame Pomfrey looking at someone's arm. Man she looks messed up...who is that anyway? I lean closer, squinting my eyes to try to see who it is. It's not easy if you're basically wrapped up in bandages.

I widen at who's on the bed. It's Michelle.

Her hair has leaves and twigs in it, and not to mention very messy. Her face has some scratches and scrapes, mostly on the right side of her face. I gulp and look over at Natalie who is taking a nap next to me peacefully. Don't tell me she...no she didn't...

Well then again I'm pretty much a mummy right now so should I really judge? My entire body is still numb with pain. Let's just say Natalie is lucky she's the one that makes my rice krispies. Something beside me suddenly catches my attention, sending my nose in the air. I find a huge basket of rice krispies. Oh god, they look so tempting. If only I could feel my hands.

"Knowing Keith, he probably ended up eating like five of those." Michelle cuts into my thoughts.

My mouth would have been wide open is it wasn't bandaged in place. Why that little...

He is going to seriously get it. I mean, who takes food from a injured, hospitalized person? I'm here with practically all my bones broken and he's been eating my love and joy!

"What happened to you?" I ask, fighting against the bandages that are determined to keep my jaw shut. I don't think I will be able to eat solid food for at least a month seeing how painful it is. My beloved rice krispies...Then again, I was hit smack onto the ground so what should I expect? I swear, I heard a _snap_ when it happened.

"It's a long story..." Michelle explains, pressing the ice pack against her scratched up cheek.

"Hey, I'm lying here in a bed practically getting mummified. I have plenty of time. I think I got enough rest for two months now. Though homework isn't going to tell me that..." I drift off. Thinking of all the make up work I'll have to do when I get out kills me. If Natalie doesn't help me, then I'm going to kill her, so I'm good.

After sighing, Michelle tells me everything. She tells me about her 'little' as she said, argument with a Gryffindor girl named Amelia or something. Michelle is horrible with names, especially with people she doesn't like so I wouldn't know.

I don't think I know an Amelia in Gryffindor from year one. I also pretty much know everyone. Maybe one from Ravenclaw or something but not from Gryffindor. Apparently, she is taller than Michelle by an inch, so I'm still taller than her. Dang it...

'Amelia' apparently has short brown hair and cold gray eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that her name is Anita." I point out, cutting her off.

Michelle just rolls her eyes. "Whatever, I couldn't care less what her name is. Anyway, after Professor McGonagall came in, she sent Ame~ _Anita_ and I to do detention together."

"What did ya have to do?"

"Pulling out the weeds and cutting extra branches and stuff like that in the Herbology Greenhouses and around it."

I shrug, trying to ignore how painful it was. "It doesn't sound that bad."

"Yeah but it's with-" Michelle stops, when she notices that Natalie had woken up. She turns to her and smiles. "Oh hey. Sorry, did I wake you?"

Natalie just stares at her, studying her scratches and bruises. She remains silent though, as if she had lost her voice.

Michelle gets up, seeing there is no real point in trying to get her to talk. Let's get real here, only Brian can do that. Apparently Lewis is friends with her also. I can't imagine how hurt Michelle must feel...

She huffs. "I guess I should get going. I'll visit you tomorrow." she tells me, walking to the door. She places her hand to shove it open when Natalie suddenly speaks up.

"I had a dream."

* * *

"So you saw three people in a dungeon?" Michelle asks, looking a bit shocked. It's probably still from the shock of Natalie finally talking civilly to her.

"I couldn't tell who they were. They didn't make a sound so I couldn't analyze their voices to see if I could recognize them." Natalie explains, her voice merely a whisper; if the infirmary wasn't as silent as it was, I probably wouldn't be able to hear a word escape from her mouth. "But I heard someone scream. Someone I know."

"Who?" Michelle asks, sounding distant.

"I don't remember. The dream was probably like 15 seconds long so I don't know much." Natalie finally looks up. "How long was I out?"

"Three days." Michelle tells her, remembering it by heart.

Natalie's face pales as she shakes her head. "No...it couldn't be three days..."

"It was." I confirm. "I was here the entire time, it was three days exactly. You passed out at 4:00 PM and woke up and 4:00 PM three days later; 72 hours exactly."

Natalie just nods stiffly, I notice her hands are gripping bunches of her sheets tightly. "Are you okay?" I ask hesitantly. I realized it's something I've been asking her a lot lately.

She just nods silently again. Michelle gives me a worried gaze, but I try to brush it off. Seeing Natalie talking to us again is definitely a step up; we shouldn't push it or we'll be back to square one again. Though., I couldn't help but worry if Natalie is ever going to gain her memories back; watching her push Joey away is the saddest scenes I've ever saw. How can you forget someone in your life like Joey? They've known each other just as long as Brian has known Natalie; possibly even more. How could she possibly forget?

At this point, Natalie is lying on her bed like she wants to fall asleep, but her eyes stayed open. She's holding the pillow nestling her head like her life depended on it. Everything Natalie seemed to be doing gets me uneasy, will she always be like this?

The doors swing open and Tamara steps in, her eyes set on us. "Oh good, Michelle's here too."

"Why? What's going on?" Michelle asks, shifting the ice pack from one hand to another.

"Ouch..." Tamara mutters silently, seeing Michelle up close. "Are you okay?"

She rolls her eyes. "Forget about me, what's going on?"

"Oh, right. I talked to Lewis."

"About...?"

"The memory thing, you know with...Natalie?" Tamara says hesitantly, looking over at the occupied bed next to me. Natalie still doesn't believe her name isn't Nattie, but, she doesn't even twitch a muscle anymore from hearing it anymore. I guess it's better I suppose, we don't want her flipping anymore beds. Calling her Nattie may not be such a bad thing...I just wished that it would have been something only Brian would do because after all, they are childhood friends.

"Okay...What did _he_ say to you?" Michelle asks, her face showing distaste when she said he.

"Natalie only remember Brian because he was the only one she forgot when she lost her memories five years ago. That's why now, he's the only one she remembers."

Michelle nods slowly, still processing the new information. "What spell was she shot with again?"

"They don't remember." Tamara answers with a shrug. "I mean, it was a good half a decade ago. I would be surprised if Natalie did remember the spell, seeing she forgot everything else that happened that day."

"Is it that memory losing spell?" I offer, deciding to finally speak up.

Michelle shakes her head, playing with the ice pack in her fingers, getting them wet. "I doubt it. Why would someone evil choose that over the killing spell for instance? It has to be something else." Tamara agrees.

"Oh yeah, one more thing..." Tamara drifts off, biting her lower lip again. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

"Do I want to know...?" Michelle says skeptically.

She shrugs. "If you want, I guess."

"What is it?"

Tamara presses her lips together. "Lewis thinks something might happen to Natalie tomorrow."

"How would he know?!" Michelle demands, a scowl on her face.

"The same things are happening to Natalie as they did with his sister when she came closer to finding out whether or not she would remember anything or not." Tamara explains, not meeting our eyes. "It's a process; Natalie's is going by a lot quicker apparently than others."

"So tomorrow is the due date?" I ask, voice sounding distant and shallow. "Tomorrow is when she is going to remember us or not?"

Tamara shakes her head. "No, not exactly. It's just a prediction, plus, Natalie may end up in a coma for a few days like she did before."

"It's still too soon..." I mumble. "Natalie needs more time..."

"She can't control it, she can't get more time if she wants. It just happens. For all we know, it could happen at 12 in the morning."

"I guess I'm pulling an all nighter then..." I mutter.

Michelle shakes her head. "No, I'll stay if I have to. You should get some sleep."

"No, no. I'll do it." I insist. "I have nothing better to do anyway."

"Are you sure?" They both ask me with a hint of concern in their voices. I nod, all I've been doing lately is sleeping, so one night won't hurt, right?

* * *

I'm going to admit, the infirmary at night is freaking scary. It's like a staying in an abandoned haunted house or something, that's what it feels like. The entire place just gives off some eerie vibe which didn't help. It's also dead silent as well. All the other students were coincidentally checked out today. The only sound was Natalie snoring lightly; it was pretty much the only thing that was able to keep me awake.

I don't have a watch so I don't know what time it is but I feel my eyes starting to get heavy. The night sky was an inky dark colour that showed off the full moon to it's full glory. Out of all the days, today it was a full moon. Then it hit me.

Oh crap, was Natalie a werewolf?! The idea was enough to send shivers down my spine. The thought of Natalie shedding fur and growing fangs scares me half to death. No she can't be...

Maybe I'm just hallucinating, yeah that's probably it. Natalie is not a werewolf. Natalie is not a werewolf. I recite it over and over in my head, trying to stop myself from sweating. At least, I hope it's sweat...Stop overthinking things!

I start taking deep breaths, trying to get myself to relax. Why am I even freaking out so much? I'm in the Hospital Wing! I would probably scare more people if I were to walk out the door. They would probably start screaming at the top of their lungs seeing my ragged hair and my dark circles, calling out that a mummy is trying to haunt them. Oh maybe I should try that...

Where was the god damn water?! My eyelids are about to give in and I need something cold to perk them up. If I fall asleep...

No, I won't fall asleep, even if someone comes along and starts counting sheep for me I won't fall asleep. Never.

That's when a bunch of sheep start popping up in my head, jumping joyfully over a white picket fence...What is happening to me?!

To make things worse, the sheep didn't look normal...Their wool were either a pale pink or a light baby blue. They vaguely remind me of cotton candy...Oh god am I drooling?!

My stomach growls, cutting into the eerie silence. I cringe and look over at Natalie. She just shifts and turns around so she isn't facing me. I allow myself to let out a sigh of relief, thank god I didn't wake her.

Stupid cotton candy sheep...how dare they try to mock me...marching around with their mouth watering wool...my stomach growls again.

Shut up! Why are you choosing this moment to make noise?! Why do you always do this to me?! I give you all the rice krispies I can get my hand on and this is how you pay me back?! I mean, I know the cotton candy sheep are tempting, but come on! Get a hold of yourself!

It growls again.

Irritated, I raise my bandaged arm and punch it. I hiss in pain, trying not to make so much noise. Oh right, I forgot that...nevermind.

Ignore the pain. Ignore the pain. Don't let it out. Please. Please. Kill the cotton candy sheep from your mind, feed them to Natalie the werewolf. I freeze, good lord...

I shake my head trying to free it from my never ending trail of ridiculous thoughts. Why does this always happen? I look around the room trying to see if there is anything I can occupy myself with.

Nothing.

Why is staying up so damn hard anyway? I did it many times before. Why is it not happening now? Why? Why I tell you, why? This is becoming bad...I hope I don't start talking to myself outloud...that will be embarrassing...

I allow myself to just sit there and wait till the clock ticks to the next day. I do absolutely _everything_ I can think of, noticing random things as well.

I need to cut my nails...dang my hair is getting split ends...my lips are dry, I need chapstick...my feet are cold, I need an extra blanket...my stomach is empty...

Oh great back to the cotton candy sheep...I swear, one day I will eat them...one day...

What seemed like hours to me ticked by, but, the sky remained the same inky black colour. Every bloody minute I struggle more and more to keep my eyes open, but they are literally screaming back '_you need to sleep! Don't you get it?! Your dark circles will get even worse! You'll look even more scary than you already do! Sleep!' _

'_Screw you! That's better for me! I don't need to wear makeup on Halloween! Boo yah!'_

For some reason after thinking that, it made my eyelids weigh at least ten more pounds. I start blinking rapidly trying to stir some life back into them. They probably gained some weight from sleeping to much. Eyelids can gain weight, right?

My eyelids get even heavier than before. I'm astounded that it was even possible. My head starts to give in as well, occasionally dipping forward in fatigue, as if holding it up was the hardest thing in the world. I close my eyes, just because my eyes are closed doesn't mean I have to sleep. I'll just give them a little break.

Bad idea.

* * *

I wasn't fully asleep, so don't yell at me. I was...half asleep. I was sleeping, but I was aware of everything around me, is that weird?

Anyway, I was just relaxing there, you know, laying there on my bed like I've been doing for the past few days or so, and I heard something. So naturally, I thought it was Natalie, so I immediately bolted up straight and turned to look at her.

Instead of seeing Natalie, I see someone else. Someone dressed in black and yellow. Reaching for something beside me...

I did the first thing I could think of. I screamed.

* * *

"AHHHH! THERE'S A BURGLAR BEE!" I scream at the top of my lungs. I automatically reach for the deflated pillow that I've been resting on and I start slapping the burglar with it, ignoring the screaming pain in my entire body.

"WHAT." _slap. _"DO." _slap. _"YOU." _slap._ "THINK._" slap._ "YOU'RE." _slap._ "DOING?!"_ slap. slap. slap. _

"Stop!" The voice cries in a panicked tone. "It's me!"

I freeze, immediately recognizing the voice. A wash of anger floods through me. Oh you're kidding me right? I give him one last hard slap with my pillow. "Are you trying to scare me half to death?! Is stealing my rice krispies some kind of joke to you you fail of a burglar! You probably put all the burglars out there in shame!"

He reaches up and pulls off his hood, revealing his face. "Sorry...I got hungry..."

"And that gives you the right to steal my food?!" I narrow my eyes at him and hug the basket of rice krispies to my chest.

"Well if you didn't wake up you probably wouldn't even notice! I was only going to take one..." He mutters pointedly. "Okay maybe two..."

It stabs me like a knife. "Oh crap...I fell asleep..."

"Uh...I'm so sorry to hear that?" Collin apologizes. I snort, and here I thought he matured...

I place the basket back on my nightstand and grab chunks of his robes and shove him closer. "Tell me. How long was I asleep?!"

"How am I supposed to know?! I was only here for like two minutes before you started attacking me with your pillow!"

I grimace, oh god I actually fell asleep! I turn to the window that's next to Natalie and I. The sky is lighter than before, but not exactly day. I sigh and slump down into my bed, thank god.

"What time is it?" I ask Collin.

"Uhh...10:30 ish?" He says, rubbing the back of his neck where I attacked most.

"It's not even 11?! Oh damn my life..."

I suddenly remember screaming. Oh no, if that didn't wake up Natalie, I don't know what would. I turn around to look at her. She's still laying there, but her eyes are open, watching us.

"Oh, er, sorry for waking you..." I tell her quietly, not wanting my bed flipped over again.

She does something that surprises me, she smiled. "It's okay. Can I ask you something?"

Wow, I'm starting to like the new Natalie. I nod. "Sure, what is it?"

"Are you and this guy dating?" she spat out bluntly.

...I take it back.

* * *

After twenty minutes of heavily denying that Colin and I are dating to the very stubborn, as usual, Natalie, Madame Pomfrey comes in.

"Why are you in here!? It's way past curfew! And what are you two still doing up!? You both need your sleep!" Madame Pomfrey scolds us. She gives an annoyed glance at Colin. "Come, I will bring you to Professor Longbottom and talk about the most appropriate punishment for you." She directs Collin to the door, he looks back, asking for help.

But we couldn't do anything.

"Once I get back, you two better be asleep." Madame Pomfrey warns before leaving the Hospital Wing. Everything goes silent after the door silently closes.

"So...Are you sure you guys aren't dating?" Natalie asks, once again. My eye twitches in annoyance, staring at her. This again!? I sigh.

"Yes, we're not dating." I said exasperatingly. Then I allow myself to snicker. "Are you and Brian dating?"

Natalie gapes at me. "What!? No we aren't! Where did you get that from?"

I shrug. "Forget it, you should get some sleep."

"Fine..." Natalie says, getting into a comfortable position on her bed. After around 5 minutes or so, I can hear her breathing in a steady pace, a sign that she fell asleep.

Soon after, I joined her in dreamland.

* * *

The school bell breaks me away from dreamland. I'm in a daze until I look at the clock. Oh shoot! I slept again! What's wrong with me!? Why is staying up so hard!? Right now, classes have just ended. Snap, I was asleep for the entire day. Nooooooo, that means I missed breakfast _and _lunch!

I'm so hungry...I turn to the side where my precious rice krispies are. Only to find some more missing. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO! My rice krispies! I swear once I find out who took that they are going to be in the Hospital Wing in critical a condition...Was it Collin again? Or was it Keith like how Michelle said before? Either way I'm going to show that person who they messed with, even if they have a fanclub.

The entrance opens and I gape at who's at the door. My rice krispies! Being eaten by him!

"Damn you, Brian!" I yell at him, pointing at him. Bad move. Owwwwwwww...I immediately put my arm down.

"What?" Brian asks, chewing on a piece of a rice krispie. _My_ rice krispie.

"I told you to stay away from my rice krispies!" I yell louder than before. I end up waking up Natalie.

"What's going on?" Natalie asks, rubbing her eyes.

"Your boyfriend here, stole some of my rice krispies...again." I reply, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Boyfriend!? I told you he's not my boyfriend! I don't like him that way!" Natalie denies. I take a glance at Brian who is staring at Natalie. In his eyes, he has hurt in it. So he does feel something for her...We all knew it.

"Really? Could have fooled me." I tease her.

"No really, we don't like each other like that." Brian confirms, playing with the sleeve of his robe.

"Besides...I...uh...I have a girlfriend." My jaw drops. Well, as much as the bandages would let me. Seriously!? He's dating someone!?

"Who?" Natalie and I ask simultaneously. My eyes avert towards Natalie, almost surprised how quickly she asked who it was. I knew it! She likes him! If only I filmed that moment...dang my timing...I can't even lift anything without being in pain anyway.

"Oh you know...a girl..." Brian says in a quiet voice, eyes looking at the ground.

I gasp. "No way! I never knew you were gay!"

Brian narrows his eyes at my sarcasm. I just laugh as much as my body can handle without breaking. "I'm joking. Seriously who is she? What's her name? Her house? How long have you known each other? What's she look like? Does she play quidditch? How'd you meet her? Is she a Natalie look alike?!"

"Who are you? Irene?" Brian remarks with a scowl on his face. "Nah, you're worse than her..."

What was that suppose to mean?! I narrow my eyes at him. "Just answer the damn questions."

He shakes his head. "Nope. Sorry, I don't want to play 20 questions right now."

"Come on."

"Nope."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"For the last time, I said no!"

I pout. "Fine. At least tell us who it is?"

"I'm not sure if you know her..." He drifts off, looking anywhere but my eyes.

"I know everyone. Now who is the lucky girl?" I tease as Brian's cheeks begin to turn rosy. Aww, the guy is blushing!

"Her name is Anna." He finally says, cheeks still inflamed. Oh come on. There's a whole of Anna's here at Hogwarts.

I glare at him in annoyance. "You need to be more specific on which Anna it is." I tell him.

"Anna Diaz. Ravenclaw." He says pointedly. My eyeballs nearly shoot out of their sockets. Anna _Diaz_?

"How is someone like you, able to score even a date with someone like Anna Diaz?!" This guy has to be messing with me right now.

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?" Brian demands, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm not that bad."

Oh shoot, did I say that out loud? My bad. I reach over and awkwardly pat him on the shoulder. "Er, sure. Sure, right, silly me..." Brian just grimaces and shrugs my hand off.

I turn to Natalie, only to see she isn't there. Oh no. I am a horrible babysitter.

* * *

Well that's all for now! We hope you liked it.

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	11. Disappearance, Chasing and Halloween

Hello! Here's chapter 11. The four of us hope you enjoy!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES.**_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

I've always thought of Brian as just a friend; but, after hearing that he had a girlfriend, I honestly don't know anymore. Something suddenly starts to eat away at the inside of my stomach as the words '_actually, I have girlfriend._' came out, and it doesn't feel good. Why am I feeling this way? I can feel my eyes stinging. Don't tell me it's tears...

I touch my cheek to find the tips of my fingers wet. Shoot. Why am I crying? If anything, I should be happy for Brian. I don't want to feel this way...

"Nattie?" A voice asks behind me, sounding unsure. I rub my eyes, trying to clean my face to making it look like I wasn't crying at all. I don't want people to see me like this. I turn around to see Tamara, looking worried. "What's wrong?" She asks, concerned.

"I'm fine." I answer.

She looks uncertain. "What are you doing out of the infirmary?"

"Just need some air. That place kind of feels like a dungeon to me." I explain, trying to remain level-headed.

Is it just me, or is it hot in here? Why am I sweating? Why is my heart beating abnormally fast? Why is my stomach aching? I hope I'm just hungry...Then again, I've never sweated for food before...

A single voice brings me back to reality. The voice never had this affect on me before; I never got shivers when I heard it. I never catch my breath when I hear it so why is it happening to me now?

"Nattie! Are you okay? One second you were there and the next you weren't!" The voice echos in my ears. Wait, why is it echoing?

My head suddenly feels heavy, but I try to ignore it as I force a smile on my face. "Yeah, sorry about that. I kind of needed to get out of there for a moment, you know?"

He nods in understanding. Brian always seems to understand me always. "Nattie!" I new voice erupts. Why is everyone noticing me?

I turn to see a girl wearing a blue and black robe. She has long blonde hair that looks impossible to tangle and piercing blue eyes that resembled the sky. Even her height is perfect, I strangely feel like a piece of trash next to her. Apparently I knew her, seeing she knows her name. Only I don't know her, nothing about her clicks. Does that make me a bad friend?

"Oh, uh, hi." I greet, quite awkwardly. I shift my gaze at Tamara and Brian, seeing if they can give me any hints. They both mouth the girl's name I'm guessing, but I don't know what they're saying because I can't read lip. This girl still remains nameless in my books.

"I haven't seen you for so long! How have you been?" The girl asks. Gosh, even her voice is perfect. I can easily see a guy falling in love by the sound of her voice alone. Is having a voice like hers even legal? She's a Ravenclaw too! So she's smart too! Does this girl even have any flaws?

"Good." I answer simply, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in my head. Why do I have a headache?

She gives me a toothy grin, revealing her perfectly straight teeth. Oh, there goes another perfect thing to add to the list. I can't wait for more. Note my sarcasm.

I feel a nudge at my side. I look to see it's Tamara, looking concerned. I just give her a confused look. Why is she concerned? This girl seems nice, which is probably why I'm friends with her, right?

I suddenly get another throbbing stab of pain, causing me to flinch. I press two fingers against my temples, trying to calm my head down my massaging it. I try my best to cover it by pushing my hair behind my ear.

"Hey Nattie, we should head back. Jennifer is getting worried." Brian says.

Oh right, I totally forgot about Jennifer. Gosh, I really am a bad friend.

"I'll come too." Tamara quipped in, she turns to Blondie. "You want to come.?"

"I'd love to! But, I promised to help my friend with her potions homework." She says, tapping Brian on the shoulder. "What time is it?"

Brian lifts his sleeve and shows her his watch. She widens her eyes. "Oh no, I'm late. She is going to kill me! I'll see you guys around. Sorry for leaving so urgently."

"It's fine." Brian assures as Blondie gives him a quick peck on the lips and leaves after apologizing once more. Wait rewind.

Blondie kissed him. On the lips. _She_ is Brian's girlfriend?!

Brian smiles, "Come on, let's get going." he says, walking ahead.

Tamara walks beside me. "So, you met Anna, the girlfriend." Ah, so Blondie has a name. Anna. "You alright?"

I force a nod. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

I am such a liar.

* * *

"I told you, someone pushed me down a hill and after I got up, she wasn't there." A voice says stubbornly, sounding annoyed when we open the doors to the Infirmary. "Keep it down please, Ms. Chang." An old guy reprimands the person. It turns out to be the shortie. The one I punched a few days ago.

"I'm honest here. I was taking out the huge weeds, when I heard a scream. I turned around to see who it was and I saw that she was on the ground with a guy standing near her with his wand up. It was too dark to see his face. I tried to get my wand out but I didn't notice someone coming up behind me. The person grabbed me and basically threw me down the stinking hill." The shortie scowls. "I'm sorry, but she was already gone by the time I got back up the hill." She says, sounding regretful.

"What's going on?" I ask, speaking my mind. Shortie and the old dude turn around and look at me.

The old dude turns back to Shortie. "Anyway, Dumbledore wants to see you in his office. Apparently, Ms. Armstrong isn't the first to go missing."

"But I told you everything I know!" Shortie retorts.

"Just go. He wants to hear it from you." Old dude urges firmly.

Shortie lets out a heavy sigh. "You know what? Fine, I will. It won't make a difference though, I couldn't stop it from happening. I guess that's what happens when you put a Slytherin and Gryffindor that hate each other together for detention. Remember what happened last time with Zhou?"

"Go. He's waiting for you." Old dude says, completely ignoring her little comment.

"Can't I at least change my bandages?!"

"You can do it when you're done. Now go!" Grimacing, Shortie leaves with a bitter look on her face. Does that girl always wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

Brian turns to Mummy girl who is sending icy daggers at him for some reason. "What happened?"

"Anita went missing." She answers simply.

"Really? Another student went missing?" Brian asks, surprised.

Tamara sighs. "Michelle is definitely going to get into trouble." She mumbles.

"But then she said she didn't do anything to her." I say.

"The other Gryffindors won't listen though." Jennifer adds. Confused as ever, I sit on the bed that I had abandoned minutes ago. I have a feeling this is going to be a long conversation.

I don't exactly know how long they talked for, probably of couple minutes at least, but my mind was elsewhere. My mind seemed to trail off to Blondie...

"Nattie?" a voice says, fishing me back to reality.

I shake my head. "Huh? What?"

"I asked if you are going to the Halloween Party." Brian asks, hands in his pockets. "Are you alright?"

I am seriously getting tired of those three words, I always end up saying the same thing in turn. I feel like that's what they would expect to hear so I say it, even if I'm not 'okay'. You can call it lying, but whatever.

"Yeah, I'm good." I answer, yet again. "Am I even allowed to go? I'm basically locked up in here...it feels like I'm grounded or something."

He chuckles, adorably. "Of course you can go. You just need to be careful. So you coming?"

A small smile tugs on the corner of my lips. "Sure."

* * *

"Watch where you're going." A voice rumbles, as I find myself hitting someone's back. It was so hard I find myself resembling it to a brick wall. I stumble backwards, having to rub my forehead because of the impact. Who on earth has a back that hard? I'd be convinced if they told me he was wearing armor. I can even feel a small bump beginning to form on my forehead. Oh well, my fault for being clumsy.

"Sorry." I mutter, massaging my forehead as I look up to see the brick wall that I hit. I noticed I am face to face with a boy.

Why does this keep happening to me? At least it isn't Brian...

He starts to send me an ice cold glare that gives me shivers. His gaze suddenly softens when he sees my face. His hard eyes grow lighter as he studies me. "So you're the famous Natalie Xiang, oh, or should I say Nattie?" He says in a flat voice.

"Huh?" I say blinking. Wait. I'm famous? No, someone named Natalie Xiang is famous. But then again, I've been mistaken as a Natalie before, maybe we look alike? Sweet! I've finally found my celebrity look alike!

I take this time to study him and the first thing I notice about him apart from his rock hard back, is he is freaking tall. He had to be a least 6'ft. Then again, I don't know how tall that is but I'm assuming it's tall. I can't seem to catch much about him; he was looking at me in a way that made me feel self conscious.

He probably studied me for like ten agonizing minutes before I finally took it upon myself to say something. "I better go-"

"You don't know, don't you?" He says quietly. His voice naturally has a eeriness to it which creep me out. Not to mention the why he talks, slowly and quietly. The boy has probably already hit puberty, seeing how deep his voice sounds.

"I don't know what?" I ask warily. What does this guy know? Does Brian even know? Has he been lying to me this entire time? My chest suddenly feels heavy just from the thought of it. No. Brian doesn't lie, does he?

With one last hard stare, he turns around and starts to walk away. I grab his forearm just before he can leave. "What don't I know?"

He tries to gently pull away from my grasp, only for me to tighten it, digging my nails into his robes, pinching his skin. "Tell me. Say something."

Much to my surprise, the boy manages to free himself from my grip. Am I that weak? Maybe I should work out more...

"You'll find out soon. Don't worry." He says, turning to leave before I can grab his arm again.

"No! Wait!" I call, running to catch up to him after he doesn't turn around. "Stop! Please!"

I feel like a desperate girl trying to chase a guy that she has fallen for but who was rejected as I run after him, turn after turn. Hall after hall. After a good game of tag, me brutally losing, I find myself bumping into someone else.

I grunt, rubbing my nose. "Nattie, are you okay? Why were you running?"

Brian.

Ignoring him, I desperately look over both his shoulders, doing a full 360 until my eyes land on him weaving through the crowd, departing to another corner. I prepare to run my damn heart out when two arms catch my around my waist. "No! Stop! Put me down!" I cry, punching Brian's shoulder.

"Not until you tell me what's going on." He demands in a calm voice.

"What have you not been telling me?" I demand back, my voice a lot stronger which throws Brian off for a split second.

He shakes his head like he is confused. "What are you talking about?"

I brush past him and turn the corner where the guy I'd bumped into before turned, only to find myself in an empty hallway. Dropping to my knees, I run my hands through my hair which is in desperate need of a wash.

I don't know how long I just kneeled there as if bowing to royalty; my head felt too clouded to think straight. I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Nattie, what happened?"

I slowly get up. Brian. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turn to him. "What are you not telling me?"

"What on earth are you talking about?" He says voice clear with worry as he holds my elbows to support me. I yank it out of his reach.

"Tell me."

He lets out a sigh of exhaustion. "What am I supposed to be telling you?"

"You tell me."

"What?"

"What?" I echo.

"Who are you looking for?" He asks in a calmer voice. "Why are you you acting so strange?"

I let out a sigh and head over to sit against the wall, suddenly feeling tired. "I bumped into a guy earlier."

Brian mirrors my actions, sitting beside me as I play with a loose thread on my robes. "Who? What does he look like?"

"He's tall." I answer.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "He's tall? Gee, that helps. Thanks, Nattie."

"He has a hard back..." I mutter pathetically.

"Even better!" Brian enthuses with even more sarcasm.

I just roll my eyes at him. "I didn't notice anything else about him. He said something that kind of threw me off guard."

"What did he say? That I was lying to you?" He asks in a quiet voice.

"'You don't know, do you?' was the exact words he said." I answer, still picking on the stubborn thread.

He tilts his head at me. "So you thought I was lying to you?"

I shrug. "You're the only one who really knows me and talks to me."

"Believe it or not Nattie, but a lot more people know more about you than I do." He tells me in a serious voice.

"Who?" I question.

"For starters, Joey does." He answers. I just look at him confused, wait who is she?

"Dark hair...green eyes?"

Oh, green eyes. I just called him a she..."Wait he knows alot about me?"

He nods. "Oh course he does. He has known you longer than I've known you. You two are like brother and sister."

"We are?" I ask, suddenly having a weird feeling down in my stomach. "Are we like...are we like dating?"

Brian looks at me for a moment, blinking a bit more than necessary. Then he bursts out laughing. I just gape at him as he clutches his stomach and continues to laugh. I swear, I can see tears starting to escape from the corner of his eyes. "Why are you laughing?" I ask unsurely.

"Joey...Joey is...is..." He says, trying to calm himself down. Seriously, am I that funny? The boy is crying for pete's sake!

"Is..." I drift off.

"Is your cousin." He says seriously. Then bursts out laughing again after seeing my reaction. Green eyes is my cousin? Oh wow...he's...he's related to me...?

"Yeah, he is." Brian answers. I said that outloud? I don't recall...

"I'm a monster..." I mutter to myself. I really am though; I pushed the closest thing to a brother away from me. That's why he was worried. That's why he looked so hurt. I feel like the worst person in the world right now. God, I have to talk to him. Wait...

I turn to Brian. "Do I have any siblings I should know about, then?"

He takes a moment to think, then shakes his head. "Not that I know of, no. Why?"

Phew, thank god. I suddenly feel stupid asking if Joey and I were dating. My cheeks start to heat up. Brian just chuckles at me.

"Why did you think you two were dating?" He waggles his eyebrows. "You think he's cute?"

"Ew! Brian!" I hit him, that is just...that is just gross!

He laughs at my reaction again. "Hey, hey. I'm kidding! Not really, but still. Do you think he's cute?"

I roll my eyes, I'm not even going to bother anymore. Brian chuckles again, making his shoulders rise up and down. He gets up and brushes himself off before extending his hand towards me to help me up. "Come on. Let's get to that party."

I reach up and place my hand in his as he tightens his around mine, pulling me up. Electricity zaps up my arm the moment our hands make contact, at least I think it just happened to me. He seems pretty oblivious to it as he lets my hand go, making it feel cold again. He instead rests his fingers on the small of my back to usher me in the crowded room we were in before everything happened.

Come to think of it, that was probably the weirdest conversation I've ever had, not that I recall any others, but still.

Brian whisks us through the crowd to a group of familiar faces. The first person I notice, other than R.K.G. (Rice Krispies Girl)-who looks amazing in her mummy costume by the way- was Green Eyes. Wait what was his name again? Shoot.

I'm officially the worst cousin ever. Oh god, what was his name again?! All I remember was I thought he was a girl after hearing it...

"Joey!" Brian calls, a smile in his voice. Oh right, it was Joey. I've got to remember that, if only I had a quill to write it down on my hand to look back on. I should really be more prepared for these kind of things.

Green Ey- Oh, I mean Joey -gosh that is going to take some time to get used to- turns around at the sound of his name. I notice his arm around a girl who is a bit shorter than her. I recognized her as Freckles. I really need to stop giving people these nicknames...Come to think of it, where's Blondie?

"Dude, you will never believe what Nattie-" I cut him off by clamping my hand over his mouth. No way was I going to let him tell Joey that I thought we are dating-clearly he has a girlfriend of his own.

"Shut up." I hiss at him under my breath so only he can hear. Green Ey- _Joey_. It's Joey! Drill it in your head already! Joey just raises his eyebrows at Brian, ever so confused. After sending Brian the coldest glare I can muster, I let him go, hoping he got the message.

"What's going on?" He asks slowly as she shifts his gaze between Brian and I. Dang, his eyes are green. Like green-green, is it even possible for someone to have eyes that green?

I notice that Freckles is looking at me with worried eyes. She could be his girlfriend, or maybe she's just another one of my cousins. Gosh, this is so darn confusing...maybe I should have a family tree.

Brian shakes his head and wraps his arms around Blondie who I just realized was standing right beside him. Here comes that sting again...for some apparent reason it just worsen when Brian kisses her on the lips before resting his chin on her shoulder. Gosh why does it even hurt?

I notice R.K.G. has an amused look on her face, but I try to ignore it. I also notice Shortie shooting daggers at Lewis as he converses with Tamara and a girl with braided blond hair who looks at Lewis with something strong in her eyes. I see the burglar that tried to rob the girl's rice krispies the other day. I wonder sometimes whether they are dating or not. I guess I will never know without battling through R.K.G's demanding questions about Brian and I.

There are also a couple faces I've never seen before, or at least I don't remember seeing. So I decide to just smile politely at them. I don't think my hands will be able to fit all the names I have to learn. It's going to take a while.

"Hey Joey, why don't you go with Nattie to get a drink?" Brian offers, smiling broadly at his friend. Or, I think they are friends...it won't make sense if they aren't.

Joey hesitates. "I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Why ever not?" he asks. "Just go. She is thirsty. Right, Nattie?"

"Uhh..."

"Go." Freckles insists, kissing his cheek lightly as she ducks under his arm and pushes him towards me. Everyone else is looking at us with amused looks pasted on their faces. I don't blame them, I feel like a helpless girl that is being set up. With her cousin. Who has a girlfriend. This can't possibly get more messed up than it already is.

"I think you should go instead." Joey says, biting his lip a bit. Is he really that scared of me? Or is it that I smell? I awkwardly dip my head down to smell my armpits slightly.

Brian shakes his head stubbornly, gifting him with a hair ruffle from his girlfriend. I'll be lying to you if I didn't feel anything stab me right then and there. "Just go."

Joey still looks hesitant, he looks over to me with something I couldn't make out it his eyes. He lets out a sigh and shrugs. "Want to go, Nattie?"

"Sure." I answer simply. It blows my mind how many shocked faces were shot in my direction. Ignoring them, I follow where Joey is directing his arm. I can practically feel dozens of pairs of eyes drill against my back.

"So what do you want to drink?" Joey says, eyes scanning the table. For some reason, he refuses to meet my eyes. I'm not sure whether or not I should be worried about that.

I lean against the table and ignore his question. Suddenly I don't feel thirsty anymore. Not like I ever was, I mean, Brian was the one who suggested that Joey get me a drink. If I were thirsty I would get a drink myself, I hope Brian knows that. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He shifts his gaze from the pumpkin juice to me. "What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were my cousin?" I ask, voice strangely calm sounding.

"You know?" Joey asked, sounding surprised. I just nod at him.

"Brian told me." I explain. "But why didn't you? I pushed you away like you were no one. Why didn't you stop me?"

"How could I?" He says, trying to ease the tension with a laugh. "Plus you were going through something important. Something that could cost everything you remember. I'm not going to screw it up for you."

I study him. "But you're family. You're important too."

He just shrugs. "At the moment it didn't matter. The most important thing was to get you through everything smoothly. We wouldn't want to risk anything now do we?"

"You risked our friendship though. Our bond. We could have never gotten it back." I say, as my grip on the table suddenly tightens.

"That can always be replaced." he answers calmly.

I protest, "It won't be the same though."

"I know."

My head suddenly starts to fog up again. The room suddenly feels hot and steamy. Everything starts to multiply. I start to get a strange sense of deja vu. I shake my head, determined to shake everything away, only to make things worse.

Shapes become blurry, as I struggle to keep my balance. It feels like my skull is squeezing my brain, just enough so it will explode any minute now. I can hear Joey talking to me. Only I couldn't make out the exact words. Everything sounds slurred, as if I've been drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Everything just feels like a nightmare come true.

I feel a pair of strong arms wrap around my waist protectively, I hear my name being called repeatedly into my ear as it rings throughout my entire body. I open my eyes and I'm able to catch one last sight of my surroundings before they drop again.

I see Brian and Blondie slow dancing in the distance, arms wrapped around each other lovingly. I see Shortie blushing about something the king of Tanland Paradise had whispered into her ear. I see a group of friends laughing gleefully together, having the time of their lives. I see a boy sneaking a rice krispie out the pocket of mummy girl. I see smiles that seem to brighten up the entire room, everyone is literally glowing with joy.

And lastly, I see Joey. Looking at me with full concern in his green eyes. His green eyes that look too green to be real; this time they looked darker than before, clouded with shadows. My eyes snap shut, giving up on me. After I fell, I was able to muster out two last words before everything suddenly shut off on me like a candle being blown out.

"Thank you."

* * *

So that's all! Just to let you know, we plan to rewrite and fix up Year 1 during the Winter break so we hope you'll reread it/the new parts when we do. When it is rewritten, we'll write it in the a/n of the next chapters. We hope you enjoyed this chapter!

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Bye!

~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	12. Iron, Cats and Tattoos

Hi everyone! Time for the next chapter. Enjoy :)

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES AND TOM AND JERRY.**_

* * *

_**Tamara's POV**_

Days have passed since the day Natalie collapsed again. Anticipation is still high in the air as we wait for the day she will wake up. If she even does...

Jennifer has been depressed due to her lack of rice krispies lately. She even tried to make her own but they apparently weren't even half as good as Natalie's were. She says she just misses the food that Natalie would make for her but I can tell her being only half alive is really getting to her.

Despite being punched, Michelle has also been worried about her as well. She rarely even talks to Keith anymore just so she can visit the infirmary religiously to check up on her. Every time she sees the same results though, no sign of waking up.

Brian has been a mess lately; he's been constantly blaming himself for everything that happened to her. Everyone would assure him over and over again that there was nothing he could have done. I can tell he isn't taking the words to heart.

Joey is by far the most torn about it; I don't think I need to ask why to know that. They are as close as brother and sister. They are two crossed fingers. It's sad to see someone this sad, even Zoey can't seem to cheer him up. The only one that can right now is Natalie.

What makes it worse is the fact that Natalie is a few days overdue her due date. She's supposed to be awake by now. She's supposed to be walking and talking. She is supposed to-Jennifer's words-be making more rice krispies. She is supposed to remember everything. Everyone's hope seems to be sagging and each passing day seems like another punch in the face.

She has to wake up. She just has to.

* * *

"What are you doing?" I ask as I walk in to see Jennifer writing away on a scroll in front of her.

She looks up. "Oh, hey. Just...writing."

Michelle nods. "Clearly. What are you writing?" Jennifer automatically shoves the scroll out of reach from Michelle as she tries to peer and read it. Michelle gives her a confused look. "Why are you sweating?"

"It's hot..?" Jennifer tries.

Michelle's eyes widen. "You're hiding something, aren't you? What are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything..." Jennifer answers, not looking at her.

"You just hesitated!"

"Fine, I'm hiding something." Jennifer admits, crossing her arms. "Doesn't mean I'm going to tell you though."

"You have to." Michelle demands, crossing her own arms.

Jennifer narrows her eyes at her. "Why should I?"

"Because I know it's about Natalie." Michelle answers simply, her cold eyes not leaving Jennifer's. For some reason, that new information doesn't surprise me. "Now what are you writing?"

"Natalie's life story?" Jennifer tries again earning an eye roll from Michelle.

"Whatever." Michelle mutters, letting out a sigh. "Look, Zoey tried making you a couple rice krispies. She wanted you to try some."

Jennifer's eyes brighten. "Really?!" She jumps out of the bed with such joy; it's almost overwhelming seeing how everyone has been under a grey cloud lately. Michelle takes the opportunity to snatch the scroll from under Jennifer's pillows.

"Hey!" Jennifer exclaims climbing over an empty bed to reach Michelle. She starts running around the infirmary as she opens the scroll and starts to read it. "Stop! Don't read! Dude, that's an invasion of privacy!"

It's like I'm watching an episode of Tom and Jerry.

Michelle stops running suddenly causing Jennifer to run into her back landing like a pancake on the ground.

"Ow..." Jennifer grunts in pain as she tries to get up. Michelle's stony glare at her keeps her in place. Jennifer gulps and scoots closer to me, ducking behind my legs as she mouths 'help me'.

"What just happened?" I ask Michelle, who is getting dangerously closer. The scroll in her hands getting crushed in her fist.

Michelle reaches Jennifer-who is now in a fetal position- and kicks her. "Get up. Get up and explain yourself."

Gulping, Jennifer gets up obediently not wanting to end up like the scroll in Michelle's hand. For the first time, my curiosity towards what is written on the scroll is really getting to me. What could Jennifer have written that would have possibly gotten Michelle so angry?

"Why didn't you say anything?" Michelle demands sounding angry and...betrayed?

"What did she write?" I ask. Am I the only one confused here?

Michelle tosses me the crumpled up paper that Jennifer has been writing on. It looked old and worn out. The sides are ripped and and browned from age. I flatten it out so I can read it, my breath catches in my throat as I look at Jennifer for an explanation. "Natalie has been talking in her sleep?"

* * *

"How can you keep something like this from us?" I demand, glaring at her. Jennifer begins to inch away from me. Seriously!? How can she?!

Jennifer just sighs and slumps back into her bed. "Look, I'm sorry. I was going to tell you when I got all the pieces together, everything is just clattered right now. All of you have been pretty stressed with homework so I decided to take it upon myself to do it. Failing in the meantime might I add. I was never good with word games..."

I sigh out of irritation. "You should have asked us. We could have figured this all out together."

"Sorry.." Jennifer apologizes again looking down at her tangled fingers. Michelle takes the scroll and looks at it analyzing the words written.

"What does this mean...?" She questions out loud showing the confusion on her face.

Jennifer sighs again. "Exactly what I've been thinking for the past few days. I may have missed a couple words too when I was sleeping as well so that doesn't help."

"Let me see." I hold out my hand and Michelle gives it to me. I raise my eyebrow at the list of words in front of me.

"Iron? They're going to what for iron?" I ask.

"I could have heard it wrong...I was tired and sleepy..." Jennifer says. I roll my eyes at her and look back at the paper. Thoughts rush into my head. Does it have something to do with Liza's death and Anita's disappearance?

What does all of this mean?

* * *

After a few hours, Madame Pomfrey kicks us out because visiting hours are over for the day which wasn't long since the curfew had been placed. Michelle had to take a shortcut back to her dormitory. I quickly walk in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower. I scan around the corridors to make sure nothing's following me. Hey, you can't blame me for being cautious. One person died, and the other went missing.

Suddenly, behind me, I hear swift and quick footsteps. I pull my wand slowly out of my robes pocket. A hand grabs my shoulder. I elbow the person behind me in the stomach hearing a grunt of pain. I turn around sharply, taking my wand out in the person's face.

"Oh gosh, don't scare me like that!" I complain, lowering my wand to my side.

"You are stronger than you look..." The voice groans in pain.

"Your fault for sneaking up on me like that." I scoff, putting my wand away.

"Sorry, just wanted to have a little fun. That's all." The voice says, sounding better than before. The voice it belonged to steps out into the light. Out of the shadows, is Joey.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else other than scaring me? Like being with Zoey?" I ask a bit irritated.

He puts his hands up as a way to tell me to calm down. "Hey, I was on my way to my Common Room when I saw you here. I was a bit bored so..." He trails off. I raise my eyebrow at him, crossing my arms.

"Okay, okay I'm sorry." He apologizes. Then he leans against the nearest wall.

"Anyway, are you alright? You looked very disturbed, before I, you know." He asks, a bit concerned.

"I was just thinking about what's been happening recently. Liza's death, Natalie in the hospital..." I say, just leaving the sentence hanging. The smile on his face slowly drops at the mention of Natalie's current situation. Obviously what happened the first time Natalie woke up from her first collapse hit him pretty hard. I pity the poor guy.

"Natalie will wake up. I'm sure of it." I try to comfort him. I'm confident Natalie will wake up sometime.

"I'm not just worried about that..." He whispers so softly that I barely hear him.

"Don't worry, things will get better sooner or later." I give him an encouraging smile. But I frown as he gives me a forced, pained smile in return.

I look at my watch. Oh shoot there's a few minutes before curfew.

I look at him apologetically. "We need to hurry, curfew is in a few minutes." I say, turning back in the direction I was going earlier.

"Oh shoot, you're right." Joey curses behind me.

"Bye." I say, before sprinting to the way to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Anita?" One of her friends say with a worried look on her face. We all shake our heads saying no. Although I do know what happened to her...But then Michelle would be in a whole lot of trouble if i told them. But they're Anita's friends, they do deserve to know what happened to her during detention. I don't know what I should do.

"We haven't seen her since she left for detention last night." A first year reports. "Did that Slytherin do something to her?" She hisses with venom. I had a feeling 'something' runs along the lines of kidnap or killed her.

"Hey, Michelle wouldn't do something like that." I defend Michelle. I know she does things that sometimes hurt people but she isn't a killer.

"How do you know that? She could have been playing you guys all along!" A fellow Gryffindor counters.

"If she was, I would have known a long time ago." I answer firmly.

"We don't know what she can do. Don't you remember what the Sorting Hat said about them? Slytherins would do anything to get what they want, including killing people in their way." I start to feel annoyed about everything they're saying. I know not all Slytherins are nice but it's not fair to judge all Slytherins because of an act by a few.

"Do you really think all Slytherins are the same? You really believe they are capable of killing someone because they are in the way?" I demand.

"Yes, I do." The student challenges sounding really sure of herself.

"Stop it. It's not worth it, fight over people like Slytherins." A voice says from behind her.

I just cross my arms at the fellow Gryffindor who just answered me.

"Oh really? Because I remember you having the biggest crush on Keith." I say. She turns all red in the face. "Oh that's why you don't like Michelle that much. Because they're close and all." A person steps in between us before the girl lunges at me for her embarrassment.

"Alright, enough already. We'll just look for Anita when we can. We can't afford to separate now. Not now since people are disappearing." The person, who turns out to be Lewis, intervenes. Everyone just turns back to doing whatever they were doing.

I let out a sigh and slump down into a nearby armchair. "Sorry. People just piss me off sometimes." Lewis just stays silent and sits beside me. I raise my eyebrow at him.

"Hey, is something wrong?" I ask, concerned.

"I'm just worried. How could a first year from our house just disappear...From what we heard about that other Slytherin, she might be..." He trails off. I don't need him to finish that sentence to know what he meant. That she might be dead. I shudder at the memory of seeing the state of the poor girl's corpse. I'd hate it if that happened to anyone again, no matter who the person is.

"Then we need to keep first years close to the older students then." I say. "They're basically toast, if they're alone. They hardly know any spells to defend themselves with."

Lewis just answers with a slow nod. After a brief moment of silence, he tilts his head at me with a questioning look. "So no luck with Natalie? Brian doesn't really like talking about it. Come to think of it, no one does. So feel free to not tell me. I understand it's not my business."

I shake my head. "No sign of waking up anytime soon." Then I take a moment to think.

"How long did it take your sister to wake up?" I shake my head at him frantically. "Sorry! That's too personal."

"A week." He answers smoothly. I think my heart just sank. Natalie has been practically dead for almost three weeks now. "Don't worry, she'll wake up." Lewis assures me, seeing me panic.

That's when something clicks. I turn to him a bit too quickly than necessary making him jump a bit from my sudden surge of energy. "Did your sister...did she ever talk in her sleep? Like when she was...yeah."

Lewis just shakes his head eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Why? Is that what Natalie has been doing?"

I just answer with a stiff nod. "Why, does it mean anything?"

"Depends." He answers, his voice sounding shallow. "What exactly did she say?"

I shrug. "A bunch of things. According to Jennifer, Natalie said the word 'Iron' quite a lot."

"Iron?" He asks giving me a curious and confused look.

"Yeah I know. Jennifer did say she was very tired and sleepy when she heard it...so most chances are she could have misheard it." I explain, feeling a little frustrated. I hate how sometimes I can't do anything but just stand by when something like this happens. He presses his lips together and nods as we lapse into another silence.

"I think she got his with the futurum spell." Lewis suddenly says in a low voice.

"The what?" I ask, my voice growing unsteady as every passing second ticks by.

Lewis raises his gaze to meet mine, they looked almost black. "Futurum is a spell that enables a wizard to see into the future. Not everyone can have it though, most end up metal or dead by the time the spell hits them. Most brains aren't able to handle that kind of power so they give up. Losing memory is only one of the many side effects to it."

"So you're saying Natalie has that?" I ask hesitantly not knowing if I even want to hear the answer.

He nods again. "Most likely, yeah."

"Is that what happened to your sister?" I ask, wondering if that's how he knows all this stuff. Lewis answers with a calm nod. I suddenly remember what Lewis said before. _The same thing actually happened to my sister. She wasn't so lucky though. _I gulp, I dread to ask. "If you don't mind...but...what exactly happened to her?"

That's when Lewis drops his gaze from me. He looked down at his fingers which were laced together in his lap. "She died."

I involuntarily suck in a sharp breath. Just the way he said it, the tone of his voice, I can sense that it's one of the hardest things he has ever said; and I made him say it. I feel like such a rotten friend right now. But my gut seemed to take over and somehow, I had to know. I swallow the lump in my throat that didn't seem to be disappearing. "How old was she?"

The way Lewis darted his eyes back to meet mine confirmed to me that I have asked the wrong question.

"She was thirteen."

* * *

"Alright guys, this is the first game of the season. Let's win this thing!" Our team captain encourages us. All of us cheer in response looking pumped and ready to win this Quidditch game. Today, we're going up against Ravenclaw.

We all grab our brooms and walk to the Quidditch Pitch. Once our team and the Ravenclaw team have gathered in the middle of the pitch Madame Hooch comes up to us with the Quaffle in hand.

"Alright I want a clean game. Do all of you understand?" She takes a glance at each one of us on the field. All the players nod in understanding.

* * *

"50-40, Gryffindor is in the lead!" I hear the commentator say as I continue to circle the Quidditch pitch. I haven't seen the Snitch since it was released at the beginning of the game. Where has it gone?

"60-40!" From here I can see one of Jennifer's banners. As usual she has quite a few of them. How did this even start anyway? Maybe I should ask her later.

Suddenly, a Bludger flies right by me and hits one of the members of the Ravenclaw team. I think her name is Lisa. I sigh. This just makes me think of Liza. I hope we can figure out what really happened to her soon.

"And Johnson is out for the rest of the game. This isn't good for Ravenclaw. They're already short one player as Green is already in the game. They still have a chance though so keep watching everyone!" says the commentator.

The game goes on and I still haven't found the Snitch. It looks like Zoey hasn't seen it either.

"100-60, Gryffindor is still in the lead. This has been one of the longest games for the past few years. Keep up the good work everyone!"

What's happened to the Snitch? The pitch isn't that big. I don't get to finish my thoughts. I feel a sudden impact behind me and I'm falling to the ground faster than I've ever gone before. Trying to control my landing was no use. I land under the bleachers of the Ravenclaw side and bump into a small figure. I try to turn around but my back is hurting so badly that I can't even move. I must of cracked my spine from the fall. I hear a faint whistle signaling the game to a stop.

Madam Pomfrey walks in and she covers her mouth with her hand; her eyes are wide. Was I injured that badly? This is not good...Some of my teammates walk in as well and they have the same reaction. They're all speechless. What's happening? Madam Pomfrey recovers from her shock and walks out. She quickly returns with Professor Dumbledore.

"Poppy, take Ms. Lynn to the Hospital Wing. I'll take care of Ms. Armstrong."

Wait, Armstrong? Where have I heard that name before. No...it couldn't be...

* * *

As I'm lifted up I turn slightly, as much as I can without screaming in pain. My fear is confirmed and then I black out.

I wake up to morning light. I guess I must have blacked out for the rest of the day. I try to sit up but my back still hurts. It's better than yesterday though. I manage to turn and look to my left. I see a bed covered with a sheet at the back of the room. How could this have happened again?

How...? I clench my fists tightly.

Another innocent person gone.

Who could be behind of all this? What's their purpose of killing off students? These thoughts run through my head giving me a headache. I groan and I rub my temple trying to soothe the aching pain in my head. Off to the side, in the corner of my eye I see Natalie sleeping on a bed as peacefully as she has been for the past few weeks. I give her a worried look. When is she going to wake up...?

"Hey, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?" Jennifer asks, pulling out her earphone from her ear.

"Other than a headache I'm fine." I answer. "What happened after I passed out?" I ask.

The door to the Hospital Wing opens revealing to be Michelle, Brian and Lewis. Michelle is far off to the side trying to get more space between her and Lewis as possible. She rushes in, looking worried.

"Hey Tamara! You feeling okay?" Michelle asks, as she gets to my bedside.

"Just a headache. No biggie." I answer.

"That's good." She says. looking relieved. Then silence fills the room.

I hear a tap from the window near the body covered by a bedsheet. I turn to look ignoring the pain that shoots through my head. At the windowsill outside I spot a black cat with piercing, marble dark green eyes looking at where the girl's body lay.

"What's with that black cat over there? By the window." Brian points out.

"AHH! It's that cat!" Jennifer exclaims. Jennifer saw this cat before?

"What about that cat? What did it do? Steal your rice krispies?" Brian asks, amused at her antics. Jennifer just glares at him.

"Shut up!" Jennifer slaps his arm. Really, Brian really?

The rest of us turns in that direction. This cat looks familiar...Where have I seen this cat before?

Great, this is going to bother me all day until I figure this out. "That cat... I've been seeing it almost everywhere lately." Michelle says sounding annoyed crossing her arms.

"Are you sure it's not just another black cat a student has as a pet?" Lewis rolls his eyes. Michelle narrows her eyes at a spot on my bed, not turning to face him.

"It just doesn't seem like the other cats..." She replies. Now that she mentions it...I do feel something different about that cat. I don't know how to explain it but I just do.

"Like how?" Brian asks, looking curious.

"I don't know how to say it..." Michelle says with a frustrated face. Lewis gives an unreadable expression to that answer. Once again silence fills the room.

Jennifer scoots over so she is behind Brian. He just turns to face her face which shows a mixture of disgust and fear. "What's wrong?"

"It's..." Jennifer drifts off, pointing a finger over Brian's shoulder toward the cat. "That thing..it's _watching_ me..."

"Maybe it has a crush on you." Brian teases, earning himself a pinch in his sides. "Ow! That actually hurt!"

"Good." Jennifer mutters, crossing her arms.

Lewis chuckles. "How do you even know it's a dude?"

"I don't know." Brian says shrugging his shoulders simply.

"What if it's a girl?" Lewis asks, an amused look on his face.

"So?" Brian says, then he freezes for a moment and looks between the cat and Lewis. "Dude, can cats be gay?"

Lewis just erupts with heavy laughter. I laugh along with him. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Michelle trying to hold back her laughter.

"What?" He asks, looking confused. Lewis snickers at him. "Dude, seriously. What's so funny?"

"Anyways," I interrupt before it gets carried away again, "What happened after I passed out?" I ask.

"Well...As you probably know, there was a body near where you crash landed from the Quidditch game." Brian starts to explain sounding a bit hesitate.

"We won, by the way." Lewis adds in. I roll my eyes at him. Who cares about that right now?! I hear a small scoff from Michelle's general direction. "You have a problem with that, Slytherin?" Lewis scowls at her.

All we hear in return is "Boys..."

"Hey!" Both Lewis and Brian exclaims, with an offended face.

Michelle just ignores them and says, "Continue."

Brian still looking offended, decides to continue. "The body belonged to Anita. The one that had detention with her." He says, gesturing at Michelle.

"Yeah. I know." I reply.

"Well long story short, everyone went all 'Ahhh! It's Anita! Is she alive!? Oh my gosh I think she's dead!' Madame Pomfrey literally had to kick everyone out to check the body out and to see if you were alright." Jennifer continues for Brian. I look over at where the corpse lay in pity.

"I hate to ask this but...How is her...you know." I ask, hesitating.

"Her what?" Jennifer asks.

"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" I say, a little irritated.

"Oh, you mean her body?" Michelle asks, finally getting it. I still shudder at the memory of seeing that poor girl's body. All decomposed, eaten away and ughhh...

"Her face has a lot of bruises and cuts. She looks like she's gotten beaten to death basically." Michelle sums it up bluntly. In her eyes, I can see the regret and guilt. I would feel the same, letting someone get captured and to find out that they died.

"But the strange thing is, when Madame Pomfrey did an autopsy, she said she found something very disturbing." Brian says.

"What is it?" I ask curiously.

"On her back, there was something written on her back, as if they were carved in." Lewis replies darkly, clenching his fists.

"Well what does it say?" I impatiently ask.

"Uhhh what was it again...It's something in Latin." Brian struggles to remember.

"It's _defectu_." Michelle says with a dark expression. "It means failure."

"And underneath that...there's a tattoo of a pelican."

* * *

Did you enjoy it? We hope you did. Just a reminder that Year 1 will be rewritten/edited. We will update our progress here.

Subscribe and Review xD

Bye!

~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	13. Garfield, Letter and Restricted Section

Hi! Chapter 13! :) We hope you enjoy.

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES AND GARFIELD. **_

* * *

_**Michelle's POV**_

"I told you guys that there's mutant pelicans on the loose!" Jennifer exclaims. I roll my eyes inwardly. Seriously mutant pelicans? Although we live in a world where unicorns and pixies live, I'm pretty sure that we don't have mutant pelicans in this world.

"Mutant pelicans? Where in this world do we have mutant pelicans?" Lewis snaps.

"The tattoo you mentioned is the proof!" Jennifer defends her theory.

"How can you be so sure that the one who put the tattoo on her wasn't a normal dark wizard?" Lewis accuses. Jennifer opens and closes her mouth a couple of times before deciding just to say quiet.

"Sheesh fine fine..." Jennifer grumbles, "I still think mutant pelicans exist..." Brian just raises an eyebrow as Jennifer releases another huff. Then we all hear something opening with a creak. We all turn to see where it came from. It was the black cat.

"See!? It's that black cat again! It's come to give us all bad luck!" Jennifer screams.

"Calm down! It's just a cat." I say.

"Yeah Jennifer. It's just a cat." Brian agrees. Tamara just stares at Jennifer with an amused look on her face. The black cat races past me to where Jennifer is. She dives under her blanket in fear of it clawing her. It just leaps over the lump on the bed to where her bedside table is. Is it going for the...?

The feline snatches the basket of rice krispies in it's mouth. It turns it's head, giving us a look of amusement and the urge to play. Then, one of the sides of the cat's mouth turns upward. What the!? Cats can smirk!?

It turns, sprinting out of the room. It came in just for the rice krispies!? Can cats even eat rice krispies? I don't even think they can even digest them. Jennifer is still under the blankets; she doesn't seem to notice her rice krispies were stolen.

"Ah! The rice krispies!" Brian exclaims. Jennifer throws the blanket off of her and stands up.

"WHAT ABOUT MY RICE KRISPIES!?" She shouts, abruptly turning her head from side to side until her eyes lay on the empty spot that they have been sitting on. That's when her eyes almost completely bugged out of their sockets. The rest of us are just standing here waiting for the inner volcano inside of her to erupt. In fact it should start about-

"AHHHHHHHHH! WHAT HAPPENED?" She screams practically loud enough for everyone in the whole school to hear. She turns to the door just in time to see the end of the cats tail. "WHAT KIND OF CAT EATS RICE KRISPIES!?" Her face starts to turn red from all the yelling.

"Jennifer, calm down. We'll get you more rice krispies." I say. Bad idea.

"CALM DOWN!? HOW CAN I CALM DOWN!?" She yells, her face turning as red as a tomato. "THAT'S ALL THE RICE KRISPIES I HAVE FOR THE MONTH!" At this, she stands up and sprints out of the Hospital Wing.

"Where are you going?" I yell.

"To get my rice krispies back." she yells back.

"We better go after her." says Tamara.

"Yeah, let's go." I say.

"We'll stay behind." says Brian. "We don't want to cause commotion in the halls."

"Okay." I say as I run out the door Tamara following closely behind me.

* * *

"Where could she have gone?" For an injured person, she runs pretty fast. We run and soon catch a glimpse of Jennifer's robes as she turns the corner.

"Jennifer! Wait up!" I yell. She ignores me or maybe doesn't even hear me.

We all start to slow down, out of breath. Tamara and I catch up to Jennifer. We continue to speed walk to make sure we don't fall behind. I look around and the cat is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the cat jumps out from the Forbidden Forest. He nods his head in that direction as if telling us to follow. Okay...this is getting weirder and weirder. Why would a cat lead us to the Forbidden Forest? Is that even a cat? We weave in and out of the forest and eventually come out again. It's like the cat is trying to make sure that no one else is following us.

We continue to follow the cat, the cat kilometers ahead. It soon stops. Right in front of the Whomping Willow, one of the deadliest trees I've ever seen. The cat sits just out of reach as if observing the situation. What is it planning to do? It puts the basket on the ground and starts to approach the tree jumping left and right to avoid the branches. It reaches the trunk and it hits it with it's paw. The tree becomes motionless. What just happened? The cat walks back, picks up the basket with it's mouth again and goes through a small hole at the base of the tree.

"Jennifer, this isn't safe." says Tamara.

"Yeah, you'll get more rice krispies. It's not worth the risk. You're already injured and we don't want to risk getting you injured even more." I reason.

"It's not about the rice krispies anymore. Okay fine. Maybe a little bit but don't you think this isn't all a coincidence? There has to be a reason we've seen this cat everywhere and I want to find out why." she says.

"But how can we be so sure he isn't leading us to our deaths?" I say.

"I just have this feeling...I just know that it isn't evil." says Jennifer.

"Are you sure...?" asks Tamara.

"Yes. If you want you can wait here but I'm going" says Jennifer. She heads toward the hole and starts to crawl through.

"We have to follow her." I say. "We can't just let her go in there alone."

"Yeah," says Tamara. "Let's go."

* * *

Oh Merlin, this place is so small and disgusting. After going through the tunnel, we emerge into a tall room. The wall looks like it's been clawed at and everything has been smashed to pieces. The room was dark and hardly any light came through from the boarded up windows; there was a single light bulb on the ceiling but it hardly made any difference. I start to cough. The room is filled with dust. There's enough on the ground to see footprints. I can clearly see paw prints leading up the stairs, along with a few human footprints, probably Jennifer's.

"Should we follow them?" I ask.

"Yeah. That's probably where they went." replies Tamara.

We follow the footprints up the stairs but as we walk further into the building, the pawprints disappear. They're replaced with human footprints which are definitely not Jennifer's because of their size. What happened? Did Jennifer turn the cat into a human or something? I don't think we learned how to do that in transfiguration...

We walk down the hall. All of the doors are closed except for one that was slightly ajar. The footprints lead in that direction. Together, we walk as quietly as we can toward the door. We look through the crack. I see Jennifer; she's clutching the basket of rice krispies to her chest. The basket looks like it's about to break. She's looking at something but I can't quite see what it is from this angle. I move closer to get a better view. I see a man. He has dark brown, almost looking like it's black, wavy thick hair. The man has dark brown eyes to match.

Where did he come from? What is he going to do to Jennifer? He starts to reach into his pocket as if about to pull out a weapon. Without thinking, I burst in.

I blink a couple of times. The room is much brighter than the rest of the building; and, much cleaner. It's messy but it isn't full of dust and broken furniture. It looks as if the man's been living there for a few months, maybe more.

The man begins to speak. "Well, hello. Are you Jennifer's friends? We've been waiting for you." He continues to reach for his pocket; I put my wand up in defense. Jennifer and Tamara follow.

"Don't blast me, I'm innocent." says then man.

I keep my wand up. He takes out a wand and clears off the couch gesturing for us to sit down. We don't sit.

"W-who are you?" Jennifer stutters taking a step back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you. I promised your father I would take care of you and Stephen. I'm-" he says but get's cut off.

"What do you mean you promised my father? How do you know him? What did you do to him? How do you know about Stephen?" asks Jennifer in a demanding tone.

"Your father was my best friend when I was your age." says the man "When you two were born, he and your mother made me your godfather. I-" he gets cut off again.

"Wait, you knew my mother too? And godfather? How do I know you're not lying?" says Jennifer.

"I swear that they named me your godfather. You have to trust me." he says.

"If you're my godfather, then where have you been all these years!? We've been living in that orphanage for five years?!." says Jennifer, her voice beginning to raise.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner. I've had _things_ to do." he replies.

"What things?" I say.

"I can't tell you that." he says.

"Why not?" asks Tamara.

"I can't tell you." he says. "I just can't tell you. Maybe someday but definitely not now."

"But-" Jennifer begins.

"No buts, I'm not saying a word about it." he says.

"Fine...But you still haven't answered who you are." says Jennifer.

"My name is Tim Garfield."

"Tim Garfield? Like that cat in the cartoon?" says Tamara.

"Yeah...I get that a lot." he replies.

"So you like lasagna?" asks Jennifer.

"No! Why does everyone think I'm like that cartoon!" says Tim.

"Wait, what happened to the cat that led us here?" I say suddenly.

"I am the cat." he replies as if it was a normal thing to say.

"What do you mean you _are_ the cat?" asks Tamara.

"This is how." At this, he closes his eyes. Suddenly, he began to shrink and grew black fur. His eyes turned bright green. Two seconds later, we were looking at a black cat. The same black cat that's been in our minds for the past few weeks. We all stare at it in shock. He quickly transforms back into human form.

"You're an animagi." I say.

"Yes, I am. Even though I couldn't reveal myself I still tried to look after you." he replies.

"Shouldn't you be orange?" asks Tamara.

"No! Stop with the whole garfield thing!"

"Fine...but wait," says Jennifer as if realizing something. "if you're the cat then you were there the day my parents..."

"How do you know about this?" he says a bit shocked.

"That's none of your concern. If you were my father's best friend, then why didn't you do anything that night!? You just sat there in the tree and watched them get killed!" Jennifer yells outraged.

"It hurt me as much as it hurt you to watch. I couldn't do anything. You're parents told me not to interfere." he says quietly.

"Just because they told you not to interfere doesn't mean you let them die!" she yells.

"It's more complicated than you think Jennifer, and for now, like before, I can't tell you the details."

She charges at him punching him as hard as she could.

"All I know is that you let them die! How do you expect me to trust you!" Jennifer screams.

"Jennifer! Stop! I promise I'll tell you as soon as I can. Please, you have to trust me." he says quite calmly for someone who is sure to be in a lot of pain. Jennifer continues to punch him and he gently pushes her away. She tries to charge again but we pull her back. We still don't know who he is. We don't know how badly he could injure Jennifer if he tried.

"Let go! I want to beat him to pulp!" she screams.

"Too bad! We're not letting you beat him up! That would be animal cruelty!" I yell.

"I don't care! Just let me go!" Jennifer's yells struggling.

"I have proof! Just read this!" He says pulling out a long piece or parchment. We take it from him.

_Chicken Lasagna _

_Beef Lasagna _

_Vegetarian Lasagna _

_Blue cheese Lasagna _

_Mozzarella Lasagna _

The list goes on...

"...What is this!?" yells Jennifer.

"This is your shopping list!" I say.

"Oops," he says, a bit embarrassed. "Here's the actual letter."

"If those were your dinner plans then you better invite me over for dinner." says Jennifer.

_Dear Jennifer and Stephen (if you can even read this)_

_If you're reading this, I assume we couldn't tell you this is person. As you now know (I think), Tim Garfield is your godfather. He's our best friend so we trust him to take care of the two of you. I'm sorry we couldn't taken care of you two ourselves. _

_We have made the wrong decisions and trusted the wrong people which is why we have left this letter with Tim, the person we trust the most (well most of the time we do). We want to explain everything ourselves to make things clear but not too clearly in case this letter falls into the wrong hands (your godfather seems to lose things a lot)._

_I want you to search up André Valliant. Once you find out about him you'll find the answers you need. Don't blame Tim for not trying to save us; we told him not to. The reason, well, we can't tell you that for now but it'll all become clear eventually. We have confidence in you. _

_The last thing we have to say is that war is coming. It could be many years from when you read this letter or even the year you're reading it. Prepare yourself. Teach yourself DADA. It may save you someday. Try to work mostly on defense. _

_We wish you luck!_

_Love Mom and Dad_

I look up to see that Tim has moved to sit on his bed.

"Well, I guess things have been cleared up so you have no need to punch me anymore." says Tim.

"How do we know this isn't fake?' I ask.

"Well their signatures aren't fake." Says Tim. He points his wand at the paper and says "_Scribens verificare"_. The paper turns bright green. I guess that means that it's not fake.

"Fine. We'll trust you for now. But if we find out the spell isn't real we're coming after you." Says Jennifer. "And don't think we won't find you."

"It is all real. I'm not lying. Even if you used veritaserum on me I would say the same things." Says Tim. "It's getting late, you should go before anyone suspects anything. Oh, and also, can I have a rice krispie?"

She walks up to him and reaches into her basket. She's actually going to give him one? She never does that. She puts out nothing and punches his arm multiple times. From the looks of it, it was pretty hard.

"OWWW" he yells. "What was that for!? I told you I wasn't lying!"

"For stealing my rice krispies. Don't touch my rice krispies ever again! If you do, then you're not my godfather." she says and starts to walk out. Now that's more like Jennifer. We begin to walk down the stairs to return to the school. Well, that was a lot to take in.

* * *

_Scribens verificare. This spell is used to verify if a signature is written by its original owner. If the paper flashes green, the signature is real but if it's not, it will glow red. The paper will stay in its original form._

"Well it looks like the spell is real." says Tamara.

"Maybe we should try it ourselves." I say.

"Yeah...He could have faked the spell." says Jennifer.

"_Scribens verificare."_

The letter turns the same bright green as it had the day before.

"Maybe he sneaked in and put this spell in the book." says Jennifer.

"I don't think he could have put it in all of them." says Tamara.

"He could have! Who knows what he can do." says Jennifer.

"Why do you want it to be fake so badly?" I ask.

"I don't want to be related to him, whatsoever! He seems crazy." replies Jennifer.

"He may be, but it looks like he's telling the truth." says Tamara.

"Yeah...Want to start searching up André Valliant?" I ask.

"Sure. But where do we start?" says Jennifer.

"Well one of us can search up the pure-blood records." says Tamara.

"I'll go," I say."He doesn't seem familiar but I think he might be a pure-blood."

"Okay, you can go ahead while we figure out what to do. Searching the records could take a long time." says Jennifer.

"See you later," I say as I head in the direction of the Genealogy section.

As I walk I see a flash of red hair in the corner of my eye. Wait, was that...? There's only one person who has hair that colour. I don't think he's going to the restricted section again...Could he? I push the thought to the back of my mind. We really need to get this information.

I skim through the titles along the shelves. _Nature's Nobility: A Wizards Genealogy_. I've looked through this book so many times. I need to consider buying a copy...Or, we should do less research. I'm starting to think we've done more research than actual homework in the library.

As I walk, my pile of books gets larger and larger. Why are these books so heavy...I can't even see over the top of-CRASH.

Before I know it, I'm on the floor, the books scattered all over the place. I look up to see that I've bumped into Aidan.

"Sorry." I say. "I shouldn't have taken so many at once." He just nods and helps me collect my books. I thank him. After, he picks up two other books that seem to have flown farther away and leaves. Well it doesn't seem like he talks much...Oh well, I guess he just doesn't like talking.

I go back to our table to see Tamara and Jennifer with small stacks of books as well. There's hardly any space left on our table.

"Why do you have so many books?" asks Tamara.

"How did you even carry them over here?" says Jennifer.

"That's why I dropped them on my way here. It's fine though." I say.

"Okay then. We were just starting but we haven't found anything so far." says Tamara.

"Well I hope I have better luck." I say.

I pick up the first book in the pile and begin to read.

* * *

After a while, I finally reach the last book. I begin to skim. When I get to the middle of the book a few names catch my eye.

_The Dark Arts are often practised by many purebloods. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Lestrange and Black are some of the most powerful dark wizards of many in all of Britain. _

Well, I guess they weren't powerful enough. Most of those people are in Azkaban now if I remember correctly. I continue to read.

_The more powerful witches and wizards currently reside in France. 'Valliant' is one of the more powerful names._

Valliant! This is about him.

"Tamara, Jennifer, look at this!" I say, pointing to the passage. Together, we read. The book continues to talk about the Valliant family.

_The Valliant family, was rumored to have created the Cruciatus Curse but no evidence had been found. More recently though, André Valliant..._

I turn the page to see the next pages have been ripped out. Really?! We were so close to finding out who he is...

"Who do you think did this?" I ask.

"I don't know, do you think someone else had been searching him up too?" asks Tamara.

"Maybe. Let's check who checked it out last." says Jennifer. We flip to the front of the book and my breath caught in my throat as my eyes quickly skimmed through the newest name scratched into the front. It was written in a neat sprawl that I could recognize anywhere.

_Natalie Xiang. _

I blink a couple times, not sure whether or not my eyes are just playing tricks on me- they weren't. Why would Natalie check this book out? I don't think this would be on her list of books for pleasure reading...

"Natalie checked it out?" Tamara says, knitting her eyebrows together. "Why would she check out a book like this?"

"I don't know..." I say. "Do you think she figured something out?"

"She didn't mention it to us though." Jennifer points out, eyes darted on the book in front of us.

"I guess she wanted to put everything together or found out it was useless." Tamara guesses out loud, biting down on her lip a bit.

"Or...she ripped out the pages she needed." I offer, as I flip back to the part where multiple pages were roughly torn out of the spine, causing the entire book to lose stability in it's hold.

"Maybe, but it's so unlike for her to do that though." Tamara observes, as she shifts her gaze between the book and us.

"How many pages were ripped out...?" asks Jennifer.

"Um...Pages 240-246." I tell her.

"That's most of the chapter. Maybe we can figure out what it was about. It might be in the table of contents and index." Tamara says, as she flips to the first few pages. I skim down to chapter six. The words beside it are crossed off with black ink. Whoever had done it had pressed down really hard as it had gone through several pages. We turn to the index to see the same. As I'm about to close the book my finger runs over one of the words leaving black ink on my hand. It's still wet.

"Someone has just crossed it off!" I say, rubbing the ink on my fingers as they smudge smoothly into my skin. Fresh ink.

"I guess they must go to Hogwarts or work here." says Tamara.

"Do you think they're still around?" asks Jennifer as she begins to turn her head, taking in her surroundings.

I shake my head. "I didn't see anyone else in that section though."

"They must have left by now..." says Tamara.

"Maybe.." says Jennifer. "Is there a spell to get the ink off?"

"I know one but I don't think it'll work on this kind of ink. It usually only works when it's still wet." I say.

"Try it on the last one then." says Tamara.

"_Tergeo". _The spell has no effect.

"I think whoever did it used permanent ink." says Jennifer, clearly frustrated.

"I don't think we can easily find that spell." I admit glumly, pursing my lips.

"Maybe we can ask Madam Pince." says Tamara. "She might know or the book to find out."

"I'll go." Jennifer offers, already getting up out of her seat she has been occupying. She quickly comes back with Madam Pince walking behind her.

"Can I see the ink?" she asks smoothly.

We show her the table of contents. She pulls out her own wand and attempts to remove the ink without success. A visible crease forms on her forehead at the results.

"Who would do such a thing?" she says angrily closing the book to show it's cover. The words are faded and are barely readable, and the corners looked worn out from the previous years of use.

"What are you girls doing with this book!? This is from the restricted section." she yells, breaking the number one rule in the library. I can't help but notice that it's kind of ironic that the librarian is yelling in the library. I turn my attention back to Madam Pince.

"I found it in the shelves. I didn't take it from the restricted section." I tell her, somewhat stunned by the expression on her face. She literally looks like she could murder someone on the spot. I take two petite steps away from her.

"Are you sure?" she asks calming down slightly, sending me back at ease.

I nod firmly. "Yes."

"What section was this?" she asks, eyes only on me now.

"The Genealogy section." I tell her, feeling like I'm talking like a soldier. I feel like I should be putting 'Ma'am' after every sentence that leaves my mouth.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take this." she says, taking the book with her hands.

"It's okay." I say and she walks off after giving all of us a nod of gratitude.

"Well, I guess the only thing left to do is find the pages." Tamara says.

"Maybe we should check Natalie's things." says Jennifer. "She might have it."

"Okay, let's go." I say.

* * *

That's all! What do you think will happen next? We will begin editing Year 1 this weekend.

Subscribe and Review xD

Bye!

~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	14. Carols, Shopping and China Cases

Hi. I know we're late. We're so sorry about that but with the holidays, we didn't have enough time to write. This is the holiday chapter so we really should've posted this during Christmas. Luckily, we were able to write it so it's posted on New Year's Day. Okay, it's a bit over where we live but close enough. Also, this chapter is extra long, a lot longer then usual.

We don't live in London so we struggled to find stores in London so these stores may not necessarily be found in malls. The mall may also not be that accurate. If anyone can tell us please PM or review if they know a better store so we can fix it. You're probably a bit confused but you'll get it later.

Another thing (sorry this A/N is getting so long), we are going to be on hiatus for a while. With exams coming up we don't have enough time to write. We'll continue posting the first week of February. Sorry for that but hopefully this will make up for it.

Hope you enjoy!

Warning OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES, WII, ANGRY BIRDS, MCDONALDS, SPONGEBOB, BLACKBERRY, APPLE PRODUECTS, NOVATECH, PRIMARK, BLUE BANANA, NANDO'S, LAST CHRISTMAS, FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, AMERICAN EXPRESS, H&M, FOREVER 21, WHSMITH, AND HAMLEYS. (Are you confused? :D)**_

* * *

_**Jennifer's POV**_

Luckily no one else is in the Hospital Wing. Natalie, as usual, is sleeping peacefully still looking unmoved and lifeless. I hope she wakes up soon. She's been asleep for way too long...

We find her bag on the bedside table and begin to go through it. I pull out a whole pile of things. I don't think I would use even half of these things during my time at Hogwarts. I find books, potions, quills, rolls of parchment and things I can't even name. I even find a few rice krispies.

"This could take forever! She has practically everything in there." I say as I pull out another potion bottle.

"Maybe we could dump everything out." says Michelle.

"I think some of that stuff might be fragile. Who know what else is in there." says Tamara.

"We could pour it on the empty beds." says Michelle.

"I guess so." I say. "We should do it slowly though. It could still fall on the floor."

We pour everything on the bed next to Natalie. The pile is almost as tall as me. I look in her bag to make sure we haven't missed anything.

"Natalie's Keyboard." I say pulling it out. I set it down and start playing Frosty the Snowman. I begin to sing and soon Tamara joins in.

_Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,_

_With a corncob pipe and a button nose_

_And two eyes made out of coal._

_Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,_

_He was made of snow but the children_

_Know how he came to life one day._

"Have you guys gotten Christmas Carol-itis or something?" asks Michelle. We just ignore her. I finish and begin to play Jingle Bells. I play up to the third verse when the sound stops. I look to see that Michelle has pressed the off switch.

"Well you've gotten into the Christmas spirit." I say sarcastically.

She just rolls her eyes. "We need to find the pages before someone comes in. That would be bad. We look like singing burglars right now."

"Fine, I guess we should." I say as I put the keyboard back in Natalie's backpack with the help of Tamara.

We search as we put things back in Natalie's bag. If it was put in in a certain way it's nowhere close to that now. I hope you doesn't mind. As I open a book labeled planner a name catches my eye.

_November 1_

_Talk to Aidan._

Why would she need to talk to Aidan? It doesn't seem like she knows him that well. Does she? I continue to flip through the pages to see if I can find anything else. There isn't much after that, mostly just homework and assignments that she decided to do months in advance- oh Natalie.

"Hey, look at this." I say showing Tamara and Michelle. They both have puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Aidan? Why would she need to talk to him?" says Michelle, knitting her eyebrows together at the familiar name of a certain redhead.

"Does it say anywhere about what?" asks Tamara as she flips through the planner.

"No. I checked the whole book. Did you see anything in any of the stuff you searched?" I ask.

Michelle shakes her head."No, unless we missed it. That was a lot of stuff to search through."

"What do you think she talked to him about?" Tamara inquires.

"No idea. Michelle, did she have any assignments with him?" I ask, remembering that Aidan is in Slytherin along with Michelle. I mean, they have to share at least some projects together right?

"No, not that I know of." she replies, after giving it a moment of thought.

"The what could it be...?" I say. We here the door squeak open. I quickly shove the planner into the pocket of my robes as Madam Pomfrey walks in.

"It's curfew, girls. Unless you stay for the Christmas break you can't come visit till you're back."

"Okay," I say. "Let's go."

Together, we walk out of the Hospital Wing. I take one last glance at Natalie but she still remains still. This entire year Natalie has been acting kind of off at some point; and it's making me uneasy. Whatever happened to Natalie isn't natural- this isn't the Natalie that I've known for two years. It's like she's a different person. I just hope she wakes up soon and everything can go back to the way it was before. But then again, none of the years I've had at Hogwarts have been anything but normal- so there's really no saying what I should expect to happen next.

* * *

"This feels...weird." Michelle comments bluntly as we gather in her living room just like we did the year before. I get where she is coming from though; the room feels strangely empty without Natalie here. Stephen is not helping either. All he's been doing is whine about the lack of rice krispies under the tree for him. That's because Natalie hasn't been able to make them. She honestly hasn't been able to do anything for quite a bit now, and it has pretty much been punching us all in the gut, Joey especially. I can't imagine how he must be feeling right now. It's his first Christmas without Natalie with him and it's bound to put a dent in the holiday spirit.

"WHERE ARE MY RICE KRISPIES?!" Stephen starts to yell causing me to stuff a nearby sock in his mouth.

"Shut up! You're just rubbing salt in the wound don't you get that?! For _once _in your life could you think about someone other than yourself?! You don't always get what you want and _you_ especially should know that! So shut your face before I shut it for you!" I hiss at him, sending droplets of spit flying at him. Everyone freezes at my sudden outburst- it's official, I've cracked.

The rooms goes completely silent for five entire minutes (yes, I counted) and then that's when Stephen cracks. Only he didn't explode in words like I did, he erupted in a volcano of tears and screams that were enough to shatter yet another fancy vase from the Chang household. Honestly, why they didn't ban him from their house is beyond me. I'm surprised I've even survived all these years with that pesky monster.

Keith was the first one to reach out and try to soothe his cries before they could wake up Melanie. Oh god Melanie; she's the last person I want to deal with right now.

"What happened?" A sleepy Milly asks, as she releases a soft yawn and rubs her heavy eyelids.

"Er, I accidently stepped on Stephen's foot." Keith lies, as he begins to rub the toddler's foot to prove his point.

...really? Really, Keith? _Really_?

Milly gave him a weird look. "Uh...okay. Want me to get an ice pack or something for him?" She asks, not sounding like she believed what he said but decided to go along with it.

Keith nods and helps Stephen to his feet, as if his foot has actually been permanently damaged. Somehow Stephen seemed to look like he was almost enjoying this. "...I can't move my foot." he says quietly, mocking the pain in his foot. Looking at how dramatic he is making the situation, I can guarantee being an A-list actor isn't in his book of possible careers.

"Don't tell me you're expecting me to carry you..." Keith murmurs quietly at him, seeming the idea of carrying Stephen doesn't match his idea of ideal. Stephen just answers by holding both his arms out, ready to be picked up.

Before shooting the three of us you-owe-me glares, he reluctantly picks up the overweight munchkin with a little heave. "Oh Merlin, how much does this guy weigh?!" He says to himself softly as he carries a now happy looking Stephen away. Well, that certainly was...something.

_Why the heck didn't I film all that?! _I mentally slap myself and start banging my head against the wall like Natalie used to do. Gosh, everything just goes back to helpless Natalie...

"So...um...should we open presents now?" Michelle exclaims happily, trying to ease the silence back into a proper conversation. Tamara and I both nod in response; eager to make Christmas holly and jolly again. It's going to be hard though, without Natalie here.

We all pass our gifts around, I get a really pretty silver bracelet from Michelle and a batch of homemade brownies from Tamara. For a moment, we almost forgot everything that had happened these past couple of weeks until...the only presents left under the tree were the ones with tags that read _Natalie_ on them.

"So what should we do with them...?" I say breaking the silence.

"Let's just save them for her. " says Tamara "We can give to her when he wakes up."

* * *

"Whoa, your car is fancy." I say as I look at the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Mr. Chang turns on the radio.

I_ don't want a lot for Christmas_

_There is just one thing I need_

_I don't care about the presents_

_Underneath the Christmas tree_

_I just want you for my own_

_More than you could ever know_

_Make my wish come true_

_All I want for Christmas is you, yeah._

Keith starts to sing. I feel like my ears are about to fall out, no offense. It's not my fault that he's tone-deaf. We cover our ears but it's no use. He is just too loud.

"Shut up! You're so loud!" screams Stephen hurting my ears in the process. He starts to sing a bit quieter but he's still _really_ off pitch. This guy needs to take lessons.

I notice that Mr. Chang's eye starts to twitch. "Can you please stop singing? I can't concentrate on the road."

"Sorry..." he says quietly.

'Last Christmas' starts to play. I start to sing and soon Tamara joins in.

"Are you okay with us singing Mr. Chang?" I say politely.

"It's fine as long as you don't disturb me." keeping his eyes on the road.

"Are you saying that I was disturbing you?!" asks Keith.

He stays silent. "How about you kids go in first while I find a parking spot."

We all get out.

"Hey you didn't answer my question!" yells Keith as he drives away.

I silently chuckle.

"Okay, let's just go inside." says Michelle.

We are literally pushed in. I guess that just what happens when you go shopping on Boxing Day. It's the day all the shopping fanatics come out of their cocoons and start to conquer the world. Next to me, is a mother of triplets holding onto a stack of coupons the size of a phone book. How long has she been saving those up?!

"Boys, lets go to Primark first, they have a major sale on onesies." she says, dragging the three teenagers away as the groan audibly.

"Nooo mom!" The triplets whine. With a glare, the boys are silenced. In the background, there's a grown man giving the triplets a look of sympathy. "Honey, get over here! Don't think I forgot about you! Now come over here." She gives him a stern look. Wow...The father groans and drags his feet as he goes to the Primark entrance.

"Dang, they're lucky." Keith complains. Michelle gives him a weird look.

"Why?"

"Hey, don't judge! Onesies are very comfortable, you know." He defends himself.

"...Okay..." Michelle trails off before turning her attention back to us. "So where do you want to go first?"

"Blue Banana!"

"Primark!"

"WHSmith!"

"Okay, how about this. We can separate and we can meet up at Nando's at, say 12?" says Michelle.

"Sure." we all agree.

Melanie and Milly turn left while Michelle and Tamara turn right; now it's just Stephen, Keith and I stand here almost tackled by the people running to Primark for discount onesies..

"So Stephen...want to try on a onesie?" Keith asks awkwardly as he turns to the little boy next to me who is currently sucking his thumb.

"I want food." He tells us bluntly. I look at my little brother in annoyance.

"We ate before we came." I say. "How can you already be hungry?"

"That was a long time ago." he says. "Can we please go eat?"

"Can't you wait till 12?" I reply.

"Just let the little guy eat. I'm actually a bit hungry too." says Keith.

"Fine..." I reply. "Where are we going?"

"McDonalds?" asks Keith. "We don't want to eat to much if we're going to Nando's later."

"Yay! Let's go!" says Stephen happily dragging both of us.

* * *

"Can I get a Big Mac?" asks Stephen.

"No." I say.

"Why not...?" Stephen pouts. "I'm _really_ hungry!"

"No and that's final." I say firmly.

"But why not?" Stephen whines tugging on the edge of my shirt.

"One, it's expensive. Two, it has like a billion calories!" I say loudly.

"No it doesn't." he says.

"It's still a lot and I've never seen you exercise!" I reply. "I'll just get you a happy meal."

"Fine...but I'll need more than one."

"More than one?! How can you even eat that much?" I yell. I notice that everyone is beginning to stare.

"I said I'm hungry." says Stephen.

"How about this?" Keith finally cuts in. "We'll get a Big Mac and a Happy Meal. Then we'll share them."

"Okay!" says Stephen happily.

"Finally..." I mumble.

I hear a chuckle. I look up to see Keith looking at me with amusement and something else in his eyes. Something churns my stomach, making me feel uneasy. I have a feeling that it's something not good...

"What?" I manage to get out, trying to recover and sound like normal. A wide smirk appears on his face in return of my efforts to be normal.

"Nothing. You're...unique." He replies, looking thoughtful at the word 'unique'. Unique? I look at him weirdly. What does he mean by that? And why does he have a weird look on his face? Luckily we reach the front of the line.

"Welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order?" says the person at the cashier.

"We'll have one Big Mac Combo, a Happy Meal and an McDouble."

Keith and I split the bill and we're soon sitting at one of the tables. Stephen happily digs through the paper bags and begins to eat. I unwrap my burger as Keith eats the fries from his combo since Stephen currently has his Big Mac.

"AWWW! I got Patrick! I want Gary!" Stephen whines. He pulls out a Patrick figurine, looking at it with a pout. Everyone in the fast food restaurant stares at us. I nudge at Stephen to be quiet.

"Calm down. You'll get him next time." I say.

"There won't be a next time! You never take me to McDonalds!" yells Stephen probably even louder than before. "Plus, they'll change the toy by then!"

I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around. I see a female employee with a slightly annoyed look but still trying to look friendly. "I'm sorry to interrupt you but, I need to ask you to calm this kid down. He's disturbing the other customers." She tries to ask politely.

"I won't be quiet until I get Gary!" Stephen screeches. The employee winces at the volume.

"You want Gary the Snail right?" The employee asks timidly, acting as if Stephen could explode any minute. Stephen nods quickly with a pout. "I will go check if there's any Garys left. If there is, we can switch the toys." The employee suggests, turning towards the counter.

"YAY!" Stephen squeals in happiness. My left eye twitches in annoyance. How much longer is he going to be like this...? I take a glance at Keith who has a look of amusement but with a small hint of annoyance, looking at Stephen. Soon after, Anne, the employee after finally looking at her nametag, came back with a toy in her hand.

"Here." She sticks holds out the toy for Stephen to take.

"YAY!" he yells. I am absolutely sure that EVERYONE is staring now.

"Stephen, say thank you and try to be quieter." I say.

"Thank you." he says.

"You're welcome." says Anne who then walks off.

Stephen quickly rips open the packaging and takes out the toy. He frowns.

"It doesn't do anything..." He then just pushes it aside and continues to eat the Big Mac.

...Really? All that trouble and he doesn't even play with it for five seconds! He's becoming spoiled...

Keith continues to look amused. He looks over at Stephen. More than half of his burger is gone.

"Stephen, you've eaten more than half of the burger. What am I going to eat?" he asks. Stephen digs through the bag and pulls out some apple slices.

"Here, you can eat these." he says and finishes off the Big Mac.

"That's not enough..." he says probably trying to avoid glaring at him.

"Stephen," I say. "You were supposed to _share_ with Keith. Now he has nothing to eat."

"I gave him the apple slices." he says with an innocent look on his face.

"He needs to eat more than that. Let him finish the rest." I say.

"But, I'm still hungry!" he says, his voice beginning to raise.

"You ate a whole Big Mac and you're still hungry?" I say with disbelief. "How can you still be hungry?"

"I just am." he says.

"Well Keith should be hungrier than you. Let him finish and you'll get more to eat later at Nando's." I say.

"But, I'm really, really hungry!" he yells.

"You're not eating more Stephen." I say firmly.

"But, I'm hungry!" he practically screams.

I notice the Anne begins to head toward us. "I'm sorry, but if you don't get him to quiet down, you'll have to leave."

"I will once I get to eat." says Stephen.

"I'm not going to let you eat more. I didn't want you getting one in the first place." I reply.

"I'm going to scream till you let me eat." says Stephen. He begins to scream.

"Stephen, please stop screaming. You're going to get us kicked out. Then none of us get to eat." I say in what I hope is a calm voice. He ignore us and continues to scream.

"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to leave. You're disturbing the other customers." says Anne.

"Look what you did Stephen! You got us kicked out. Let's go." I say pulling on his arm. Keith helps throw away the garbage and puts the leftovers in a take-away bag.

"I'm not leaving!" yells Stephen as he holds onto the chair which is unfortunately drilled into the ground.

"Yes you are! Now let's go." I say pulling him.

"No!" he screams holding onto the chair as if his life depends on it.

"If we don't go soon. They're going to call the police." I say. "Do you want that...? Do you want to go to jail?"

"I'm not old enough to go to jail." he says. Keith finally steps in and manages to pull Stephen off the chair. Stephen continues to scream and kick.

Anne walks us out. Just as we leave I hear her mumble. "I don't get paid enough for this..." as she walks away. If that's what she said, I would agree.

* * *

We finally get Stephen to calm down after buying him some ice cream. When we get home I'm going to have to make him exercise...

"So where are we going first?" asks Keith.

"I don't know. Let's go to something we can all go to though." I reply.

"Novatech? I've been wanting to get a phone for a while." he says.

"Sure, maybe Stephen can go play on a Wii to lose all those calories he got from that Big Mac." I say.

Luckily, the line isn't too long. After a short wait we manage to get into the store. The place is crowded with people, mainly teens with parents who want to get the iPhone 5.

We walk over to the phone section and Keith tries a few phones. Stephen instead of playing Wii which I have tried to convince him to play, is playing Angry Birds on one of the sample iPads. From the looks of it, he's getting perfect on every level. He just loves Angry Birds. Especially the red bird. I blame Michael for this. Everytime Stephen passes by anything that is Angry Birds, he asks to get it. Practically everything he owns is Angry Birds now.

"So what phone are you thinking of getting?" I ask Keith who is currently testing a Blackberry.

"This or an iPhone." He replies, still playing with the Blackberry in his hands. Then a thought came to my mind. "Wait a minute, how are you going to pay for it?" I ask. This Blackberry is the latest one.

"Credit card." He smirks at me, holding out a golden American Express card. I gape at him. His parents gave him a credit card!? "They let me use one of their Muggle credit cards for today." He says, shrugging his shoulders as if it's not a big deal.

"High Score!" I hear Stephen yell.

I walk over to him. "Stephen, you have to be quiet or we'll be kicked out. If we get kicked out _again_ I will take away all of your Angry Bird things. Don't think I don't know where you hide them." That silences him. Why didn't I think of using that earlier...?

I turn back to Keith. He's currently playing around with an iPhone 5.

"I think I'll get this one. There's a lot more to do." says Keith.

"Yeah, Blackberries are more for people who work in businesses or text a lot." I reply.

"Get Stephen and I'll meet you in the line." he says.

"Okay." I say and walk over to Stephen.

"Come on, it's time to go." I say, pulling him away from the iPad he's been playing with.

"But I want to get the high score." Stephen pouts.

"You can do that when we get back. Let's go." I say.

"Do we have to?" asks Stephen.

"Yes, and if you don't stop playing I'm taking away your Angry Bird things." I reply with a slight smirk.

"Okay..." he says as he closes the game. I should really say this more often. We meet up with Keith in line. He pays for his iPhone and we leave the store. Keith takes a look at his watch.

"We still have quite a lot of time before 12. So where do you guys want to go?" Keith turns to the both of us.

"McDonalds! I'm hungry!" Stephen pouts. Both Keith and I sigh exasperatedly. "Just wait until 12. We're heading over to Nando's to eat for lunch. Besides, shouldn't Keith here be more hungry than you? You did eat the Big Mac that you guys were _supposed_ to share." I glare at my younger brother.

"I gave him the apples!" Stephen cries defensively.

"Yeah, because you hate apples." I reply. Stephen just glares at me angrily in response. He crosses his arms and has a big sulky pout on his face. I just sigh. I turn to Keith who looks at us with an unreadable expression.

"Sorry. He's such a handful." I apologize.

"No worries." Keith responds, "How about we go to that toy store over there? To cheer him up."

I sigh. "Fine. But I blame you if he has an even bigger tantrum if he wants toys there." I warn him.

"Come on Stephen. Let's go to the toy store!" he says to Stephen. His face immediately brightens and we all walk into Hamleys.

Stephens eyes widen as he looks at the shelves of toys. He probably thinks he's in heaven. He quickly goes to the car section. Oh no...I hope we don't end up buying him one. He already has so many...

"Hey Keith, could you watch Stephen for a while. I need to go buy some things." I say.

"Sure. Just come back a bit before 12 so we can walk over together." he replies.

"Okay." I say. "Bye."

"See ya later." He waves goodbye at me, staring at me for a second before turning his attention back to Stephen. Weird.

Now to do some of my own shopping. There's this sweater at H&M that I want...I just hope it's not sold out. I need to hurry. I pick up my pace, but it's quite hard to do so when you're in the middle of such a huge crowd that knocks down everything in it's way to get to their destination. I try to rush to H&M without knocking down any other shoppers.

I finally make it to the store and go inside. I walk over to the section I last saw the sweater in. Yes! It's 50% off! I quickly pay for it and head towards Forever 21 to see what else is on sale. I take out my phone to see what time is it. Oh, there's still time left before meeting up with Keith and Stephen. Just when I look up, I bump into someone's back.

I'm about to apologize when I look up to see that it's Aidan.

"Oh hi." I say.

"Hi." he replies.

Then I remember Natalie's planner. 'Talk to Aidan'. Maybe I could ask him...

"Could I ask you about something?" I ask.

"Um...sure, I guess." he replies.

"Did you talk to Natalie sometime during the beginning of November?" I ask.

He hesitates. "Why?"

"I saw it in Natalie's planner and was just wondering." I reply.

"Yeah, we did. Sorry, I need to go." says Aidan and then he rushes off. I don't even get to ask my next question. I guess I'll ask when we get back to school. I look at my phone to check the time again. I should probably go back.

* * *

We arrive at Nando's just in time. We all sit down and we are given the menu's. After a short while, our orders arrive and we all begin to talk about our mornings. As I eat my Veggie Wrap I notice someone familiar in the corner of my eye. I turn to see Aidan. I think he's with a girl. Wow, the girl is pretty. She has a pair of shining, expressive chocolate coloured eyes. The girl has a bright smile to match. She has waist-length brown hair with dyed orange highlights. Are they dating...? I remember the planner again. Maybe I should go over and ask again. But then again, if they are dating I would be disturbing them. I guess I'll just ask when we get back.

"The lineups were so long." complains Melanie.

"They were okay for us." says Keith.

"Same." says Tamara.

Michelle nudges my side and nods in the direction of Aidan as Melanie continues to complain about her morning.

"Yeah, I know. I saw him earlier too." I whisper.

"Did you ask?" says Michelle.

"He said he did but he left before I could ask what about." I reply.

Just then, dessert arrives. The waiter approaches with many multiple bowls and plates of sweets. I've always wondered how they manage to carry so much at once. I begin to eat my ice cream.

"Should we go over and ask again?" says Michelle.

"Ask what?" says Tamara joining in on the conversation. She turns in the direction we're looking in.

"I don't know." I say. "We can't go over without the others knowing." I'm surprised they haven't even noticed us whispering.

The bill arrives just then. We split it and begin leave the restaurant.

"What are we going to do now?" asks Milly.

"I've still got some shopping to do." says Melanie.

"I'm pretty much done." I say.

"I guess we're splitting up again." says Michelle.

"Where's my toy car!" yells Stephen.

"You must have left it in the restaurant." I say as I look through Stephen's backpack.

Stephen looks like he's about to burst into tears.

"Okay, we'll go back and look for it." I say. "You guys can go ahead."

"Okay then," says Tamara. They all begin walking in different directions as I take Stephen back to Nando's. I see Aidan at the door. He's staring at us with a blank expression. Aidan is holding a trench coat but it's obviously a girl's. He must be waiting for that girl from earlier.

"Just wait a second. I need to talk to someone." I tell Stephen as we walk up to Aidan.

"Hi again." I say.

"Hi." he replies.

"You left so quickly I didn't get to finish asking you." I say. "Could you tell me what you and Natalie talked about?"

He looks down and shifts around uncomfortably. Just then the girl comes back.

"Thanks for holding my coat Aidan." she says taking it from him. "Who's this?"

"Oh, just someone from school." he replies.

"We need to go. We're in a rush. Bye." he says quickly and begins to walk away.

"Bye, nice meeting you." says the girl and walks after him.

"But..." I begin to say. I can just hear the girl say "We're in a rush?" His response is blocked out by the noises of the crowded mall. Is he trying to avoid telling us?

* * *

"Can I please stay up till 12?" asks Stephen with his best innocent voice and puppy dog eyes.

"No." I reply. "That's _way_ past your bedtime."

"Pleaseeeeeeeeee?" he says dragging out the 'e'.

"Come on, just let him stay up today." says Michelle.

"Yeah, I agree with her." says Stephen.

"You'll be all cranky in the morning. I don't want to deal with that." I reply.

"I promise I won't." says Stephen. "Do I need to get on my knees?"

"Fine...only today. Come on let's go downstairs." I say reluctantly.

"YAY!" yells Stephen as he runs all the way down the stairs.

The doorbell rings. I wonder who that could be...? Michelle and I quickly run down the stairs and look through the eyehole on the door. We don't see anyone.

"It must be the neighbours again. They just love to prank doorbell us." says Michelle.

We turn to walk towards the living room when the doorbell rings again. We peer through the hole again but no one's there.

"Maybe we can't see them. Do you have an invisible friends?" I ask with a laugh.

"Yeah," she replies sarcastically. "So many I don't remember what they look like."

The doorbell rings again. This time we just open the door. I look down to see a black cat. Beside him is a tray of lasagna. Stephen runs up behind us.

"COOL! It's a cat! Can we keep him?" he asks. The cat immediately jumps into Stephens arms.

"Surprisingly yes." I say.

"Yay!" he yells as he brings the cat into the house.

"How does he know where you live?" I ask.

"I have no idea." replies Michelle. "I wonder what else he knows..."

"Well at least you get free lasagna." I say as I pick up the tray off the ground.

"When are you going to tell Stephen?" asks Michelle.

"I don't know. Probably when your sisters and Keith are asleep." I reply. "Where should I put this?"

"I guess you can just give it to Nellie." says Michelle. "Nellie!"

The Chang family house elf appears. "Yes-mis- I mean Michelle?"

"Can you please bring this lasagna to the kitchen?" asks Michelle.

"Yes." says Nellie as she takes the lasagna from my hands. She disapparates into the kitchen.

"Let's go and see what Tim is up to." I say and we begin to walk into the living room.

We walk in. The fireplace is burning and everyone is sitting around it. We join them.

"Isn't this the cat you thought was bad luck?" asks Keith.

"Oh well, I think we're going to keep him." I reply.

"How are you sure it's a him?" he asks. "Maybe it's a girl cat."

"Maybe..." I say with a smile. "Let's name her Lucy." Tim immediately jumps out of Stephen's lap and jumps into mine. He digs his claws into my skin.

"Okay maybe not. Let's name him Garfield." I say. He purrs at that and jumps back into Stephen's lap. Wait...does he do that on purpose or what...?

"You better make sure that cat is trained. I'm not cleaning up after it." says Melanie.

"I'm pretty sure it is. If it's not it's going to get kicked out of the house." I glare at Tim.

"What are we going to do till midnight?" asks Tamara.

"We could play some games. We have some upstairs." says Milly. "Want me to get them?"

"Sure," says Keith.

Just then, Mr. and Mrs. Chang walk in.

"Where did the lasagna come from?" asks Mrs. Chang.

"Lasagna? Maybe it's Garfield's." says Keith with a laugh. I look at Michelle as we share the inside joke. Tamara seems to see it too.

"Garfield's? What are you talking about?" asks Mr. Chang.

"Jennifer and Stephen's cat." says Milly.

"Cat?" asks Mrs. Chang with a surprised look on her face.

"Yeah...do you mind if he stays here for a while?" I ask. "I'll bring him back to Hogwarts when the break is over."

"As long as he doesn't make a mess. Make sure he stays away from my China case." says Mrs. Chang.

"Okay," I reply. "Did you hear that Garfield? Stay away from the China case." Hopefully he's heard me.

"Why are you acting as if the cat can hear you? Cat's don't understand English." says Melanie.

"This one does." I reply. "He's different from other cats."

Melanie just shrugs it off as if I'm crazy. Oh well.

Soon after that we eat dinner. Surprisingly the lasagna was really good. I need to get him to cook for me more often. Maybe he can become my personal chef or something. I wonder if his rice krispies would be as good as this.

"Can I go play with Garfield?" asks Stephen. "I'm done dinner."

"Okay," I reply. "Be careful, and don't break anything." We don't want another vase incident. The two run off into the next room.

"Let's start playing some of those games." says Michelle. We all walk toward the living when we hear a loud crash and the sound of shattering glass. Don't tell me he broke the vase again...

We all head towards the noise. I look to see that the vase is fine...Then what broke...? Tamara taps my shoulder and points in the opposite direction. I look up.

Tim sits on top of the knocked over China case with an innocent look on his face. Stephen tries to do the same. Oh great, now I have two people in my family who like to break things!

Mr. and Mrs. Chang rush in. Their mouths drop.

"I'm so sorry," I apologize. "I'm just going to get rid of the cat now. Come here Garfield. You're leaving."

Tim immediately sprints out of the room. Stephen follows. I thought Godfathers were supposed to be a good influence! He's not even a good influence in cat form!

"Well it looks like that cat does have some sense." says Melanie.

I apologize again. "Is there anything I can do?"

"It's okay Jennifer. I'll find the spell to fix it." says Mrs. Chang. "It's not your fault..."

"I'm so sorry..." I say again. "I'll just go find that cat and Stephen."

"We'll come with you." says Michelle.

"Yeah," says Tamara.

"I guess we'll stay and try to clean up." says Milly.

The three of us walk out of the room.

"Stephen, Garfield! Come out!" I yell as we walk through the hallways.

I spot a black tail and an Angry Bird plush sticking out from behind one of the bookshelves as we walk into the library. I tell Tamara and Michelle to go around while I begin to sneak up on them from this side. They see me an begin going in the other direction. Luckily, Tamara and Michelle have reached the other side. We close in on them.

"It was an accident. Please don't take my Angry Bird stuff!" says Stephen grabbing the plush from the floor. The cat just has a look of fear on it's face. We continue to walk toward them.

"It was Garfield's fault! Blame him!" yells Stephen.

Garfield, or should I say Tim changes into his human form. Stephen steps back in shock and runs to hide behind me, probably more scared of Tim then getting in trouble.

"T-t-that cat turned into a person!" stutters Stephen.

"That cat is your Godfather." I say.

"Godfather? We don't have a Godfather." says Stephen.

"We do have a Godfather. I just found out. This is Tim Garfield." I say as I step aside so he's no longer behind me. A silence goes around the room as Stephen and Tim stare at each other. There's a lot of tension in the air. As time goes by, Stephen's face starts to get red. Oh no...

"Uhhh...Stephen...?" Tim asks, concerned. Stephen's fists are clenched and he's trembling. Oh shoot.

"You..you..were gone all this time!" yells Stephen as he throws himself at Tim without much effect. He punches and kicks but I don't think it even hurts that much.

"You two really are alike..." says Tim. "Stephen, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you but I couldn't till now. I promise I'll make it up to you."

"P-promise?" he says holding out his pinky.

"Pinky promise." he says holding out his. "After all that though I think I should leave for now."

"But you just..." says Stephen.

"Don't worry, I'll come visit you. At least once a week if I can." says Tim.

"Okay." says Stephen.

"One more thing. You can't tell anyone. No one at all. Only Jennifer, Michelle and Tamara can know. Clear?"

"Yes." he replies.

"Well, I best be off." With that he disapparates out of the house.

* * *

I look to the clock. _11:59._

A yawn could be heard beside me. I look down to see Stephen yawning, and rubbing his eyes adorably, to keep himself awake. All of us went downstairs to the living room where the rest of Michelle's family and Keith are. Her parents managed to fix all of the plates by the time we got downstairs.

"So you kids ready for the new year?" Mr. Chang asks with a fatherly smile.

"Yeah!" All of us cheer excitedly, hoping better things would come our way. Like for instance...Natalie waking up. It just feels so empty without her. It's been so long since she woke up. What if she doesn't wake up at all? I try to force those kind of thoughts out of my head. I shouldn't have those kind of thoughts. Natalie _will_ wake up.

takes out her wand and flicks it. An orange light comes out of her wand, forming into a timer. It tells how much time we have left until the year 2013 comes. Currently we have 15 seconds left of 2012. All the things that have happened the past year comes into my head in flashes. We have really had a crazy year, even more so than the one before. But most of it was full of great memories.

00:00:10 seconds left.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!" When we got to 5 seconds, we are shouting even more louder than it was before.

"4!" As we get closer to 2013, we get louder, more excited.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

* * *

"I wish the holidays were longer." I say, once we got off the Hogwarts Express.

"Yeah, I don't want to get back to all that work." says Michelle.

"I want to visit Natalie though. We should probably go visit her." says Tamara.

"Yeah, maybe she woke up." I say to lighten the mood.

Together, we walk to the Hospital Wing. We bump into many people and exchange a few words with some of our other friends. Soon, we arrive. We slowly open the door hoping that we see Natalie awake and reading a book or something.

Sadly, our wish doesn't come true. Natalie is still laying on her bed as if she hasn't moved since we last saw her. We walk over to her. She just lays there. Why couldn't she have waken up by now? That would've been a great way to start the new year. I just know she'll wake up but I don't know when. When? The three of us are silent. There's really nothing to say. Just then the door slams open. Brian rushes in, out of breath.

"Irene is missing!"

* * *

Sorry we left it at a cliffhanger. You're just going to have to wait a month to see what happens next. Please review, it would be a great present even though Christmas is already over. For editing year 1 we will probably try to continue editing yet as the winter break isn't over yet. So if you can, go back and re-read it. It's going to be a lot longer and it will be fixed quite a bit.

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	15. Playing Dead, Iris and Decisions

Hi everyone! Sorry again for moving our next post date after our hiatus. Thank you for you patience. We hope you enjoy!

Warning! OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS! IT BELONGS TO RICK RIORDAN.**_

* * *

**Natalie's POV**

**TWO WEEKS LATER**

I wake up to a bright light. The sun shines through the window. Oh, it's morning. My feet kick something and I look to the foot of my bed. I see a man curled up like a cat. He's wearing long black robes and there are sheets on the floor layed out like a cat bed. Okay...Who is that...? I look around the room to see multiple beds. Wait...why am I in the Hospital Wing?

I hear a yawn from the man. He stretched his back, stretching his back like he's in that yoga position. What is it called again? Oh well. Wait a minute, what's a guy doing on my bed?! Without thinking, I kick the guy multiple times to get him off my bed.

"Ow!" The man grumbles, rubbing his sore ribs. "First, Jennifer, Stephen and now her..."

I look at him feeling confused. What about Jennifer and Stephen? "Wait how do you know who Jennifer and Stephen are? Who exactly are you, and _why _on _earth_ are you on my bed? Why am I even in this bed?!" I demand, attacking him with questions.

A heavy groan is releases from his lips as he rubs the back of this neck. "Ughhh, can you lay low on the questions for just a moment, please? You're giving me a headache."

"Well, it's not exactly everyday you wake up with a stranger lying on your bed now is it?" I tell him seriously with narrowed eyes, as I rub my temples seemingly starting to get a headache of my own.

He snickers. "Then you have no idea, seeing you've been out for like a month or so."

"What are you talking about?" He raises his eyebrow at me. The guy looks like he can't believe the nerve that I have for not remembering that. "Tell me." I push, holding a steady gaze on his.

"You don't know? You seriously don't know?" He asks me, equally serious.

"How long have I been sleeping exactly?" I ask instead. Judging by my abnormally numb rusty feeling limbs and my hoarse voice, they've all been unused for a very long time.

He just shrugs in response. "I have no idea. I haven't been here the entire time so I don't know the details. Plus, Jennifer isn't exactly too keen on me knowing anything about you but I thought that after she and the other two girls- Mickey and Taryn, I think- left I would keep an eye on ya for them."

That still doesn't explain what he's doing on my bed though but whatever. "Mickey and Taryn?" I inquire, giving him a flat look.

He looks sunken. "Crap did I get the names wrong? It isn't Taryn is it? I'm pretty sure I got Mickey right though...I know it starts with T though...nah, I'm pretty sure it's Taryn. They also left with some Byron dude as well- whoever that is. That guy just needs a chill pill to be honest with you."

"Byron?" I ask him, eyebrow raised.

He nods confidently. "Yeah. Gryffindor, dark hair, glasses, about this tall." He gestures with his hands. Does he mean Brian...?

I nod slowly. "Er, right. Um, where did they go exactly? Besides, you still haven't told me who you are might I add."

"To find some Iris girl of some sort." Iris..? Oh he must mean Irene. Seriously, what did I miss!? "How long ago did they leave?" I ask, worried. The man frowns with a displeased look on his face. His eyes turn away from me.

"A week and a half ago." He answer grimly. "They haven't been back since." I freeze. What? What could have happened to them?

"Ire-I mean Iris went missing?" I say. What happened to me? It feels like someone stole a whole chunk of my memory...What happened before I fainted...I just can't remember...

"Yeah, I don't know the details though. They wouldn't tell me anything. I probably wouldn't have even known if they didn't tell me to look after you." he replies.

"What exactly happened? Why do you need to look after me?"

Just then, Joey and Zoey walk in sucking in all remaining threads of further conversation along with them. I allow my eyes to shift from whoever it is in front of me to an unfamiliar pair of friends in front of me.

I mean, it's not like I don't know them, but they just look...different. They both look like they haven't gotten a decent amount of sleep in years and seems to have permanent look of depression stapled onto their faces- it was only when their eyes set on me when a flash of life hits them as if they have just been dead this entire time.

"Natalie!"

"Nat!"

They sprint to my bedside looking as if they've struck gold. "What happened to you guys? You look as if someone had died." I ask.

Zoey holds out her hand in front of my face. "How many fingers?"

"Huh?" I ask, wondering what on earth is on her mind.

"I said, how many fingers?" Zoey repeats slowly as if she's speaking to a five year old. I frown at her feeling irritated.

"Three. I'm perfectly fine Zoey. Now tell me what happened to the both of you." I cross my arms, glaring at them.

She gasps. "You remember me? Us?"

"What do you mean?" I inquire, blinking at her as if she has gone mental or something.

"Do you know my name?" She then asks eagerly as Joey stands behind her silently. "Do you remember his name? What about the Headmaster's name? Your house? Blood type? Height? Weight?" I give her a blank look. What in the world is going on here?

I blink at her. "Uh, Zoey are you okay?"

That's when she practically faints.

"She. Remembers. Me." She exclaims happily, pausing between each word to emphasize her glee. She squeals. "Oh my god. Oh my god you're okay!"

Then she punches me. Hard.

"Ow!" I mutter, rubbing my arm from the impact. It feels like she has broken a bone of mine or something. "What was that for?"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again Natalie Dawn Xiang or I swear..." She begins to threaten, pointing her finger sternly at me.

"Zoey, calm down." Joey finally speaks up, pulling her away from me by her waist allowing me to breath again.

"Nobody's answered me yet. What. Happened." I emphasized the last two words. I can feel my patience running low.

Joey looks at me worriedly. "...Maybe...later...you still need to be checked over by Madame Pomfrey." I narrow my eyes at him.

"No. Tell me." I insist. After a moment of silence, Joey sighs and runs his hand through his hair. He looks tired and stressed.

Without further discussion I throw the covers over and fling my legs over to meet the ground. It took much more effort that I thought it was going to take but I managed to pick myself up on my feet to navigate them over to the double doors.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Zoey calls from behind me, her footsteps echoing my own to my nearest exit.

"Following the guy that I found in my bed this morning. He just left and he seems to be the only one willing to tell me what's going on."

"A guy was in your bed this morning?" Joey mutters darkly under his breathe. Gosh, I seriously don't need him getting all concerned and protective over me right now.

"Yeah." I answer simply, gripping the handle with my dry hands only to find them being opened from the opposite side.

Fumbling backwards, I catch a slight glimpse of Madame Pomfrey before losing my balance and tripping into the two behind me.

Right before she enters the room, I'm able to make out the few words that are able to escape Zoey's mouth just in the nick of time.

"Play dead."

Well, this is going to go well.

* * *

"Ms. Jenkins! What on earth do you think you are doing with Ms. Xiang?! She should be resting! Why on earth is she on the ground?!" I hear Madame Pomfrey scold rather coldly at Zoey. "And you Mr. Lu! Would you two care to explain?"

"Ughh..." Zoey stammers. "We wanted her to get some air and get out of this place for a while since...you know...she's been crammed in here for like six million years. And we...er...didn't have a wheelchair so we wanted to carry her...? We wanted to carry her! Yes! And we...kinda dropped her...?" She finishes quietly. "Well not kinda, you get what I mean..."

I can practically sense Joey restraining a massive facepalm right now.

"Well we better get her to bed right now." says Madam Pomfrey. Two pairs of hands pick me up from the ground.

"Wait just a moment..." Madame Pomfrey pauses, I can feel her giving me a scrutinizing look. Zoey, who's on my right, freezes in fear of being found out. "Ms. Jenkins, Mr. Lu and Ms. Xiang. What is the meaning of this charade?" She asks sternly. It shakes me a little bit. She isn't the head nurse for nothing...

"Haha...well..." Zoey nervously laughs. Joey sighs in annoyance but there's still a hint of fondness to it. I stand to my full height or at least try to; seeing the look on Madame Pomfrey's face, I can understand why Zoey is getting nervous.

"I just woke up a few minutes ago. I just wanted to get out for a while." I answer, staring at Madame Pomfrey in the eyes. In her eyes, I can see it is full of exasperation, relief, and stress.

"You shouldn't have gone out yet." Madame Pomfrey nags, "After being in a comatose state for so long, your body must be stiff. All of you should have called me over. Even so, what is the reason for you to pretend that you're still asleep?"

Uhhh...Shoot. What do I say to her that won't sound suspicious or weird...?

A few moments of silence fills the room, save the rest of the students in the Hospital Wing and the other nurses. Madame Pomfrey raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms in front of her chest, waiting for an answer. As time passes, Zoey starts to get fidgety from trying to think of a good enough excuse to give Madame Pomfrey. Joey begins to look around the room with a calculative look on his face, no doubt he's also trying to find an excuse.

"We were just afraid that you would be mad that we didn't tell you right away that Natalie was awake." Joey says with a slight nervous look. Madame Pomfrey narrows her eyes, piercing right through each of us with disbelief on her face.

The Head Nurse just sighs in resignation. "What matters now, is that you're awake now Ms. Xiang. How are you feeling? You really shouldn't be standing up after everything you have gone through. It would be best if you're in bed resting for another couple of days or so."

I half-heartedly smile at her. "I'm fine. Kind of dizzy in the head, but I'm fine. I don't think the extra days of bed rest is necessary Ma'am."

"Nat..." I hear Joey mumble but decided to ignore it.

She furrowed her brows at me. "Hm, I don't think that's a good idea Ms. Xiang. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"I'm fine. Really." I insist.

"Ms. Xiang-"

"Don't worry Madame Pomfrey, I'll make sure she'll be alright." Joey suddenly cuts in. "If anything happens, we'll be sure to bring her straight to you. I think Natalie needs some air right after being cooped up in her bed for so long."

Zoey nods in agreement. "Yeah, believe me, she'll get stir crazy if you were to keep her practically locked up in a room for too long. She will literally have a mental breakdown and will break down a door to get out with her own two hands if she has to." She quirks smoothly. I blink at her. Since when have I ever gotten stir crazy around her? Since when have I _ever_ gone stir crazy?

And when did she start thinking I can even come close to breaking a door?

Now it's Madame Pomfrey's turn to give Zoey a completely dumbfounded look on her face. "Ms. Xiang. Break down a door...?"

"Hey, you have no idea what that girl is capable of. She might look all innocent and nice on the outside but in the inside she can be a real tiger sometimes if she wants to be." Zoey explains confidently, sending even Joey's eyebrows shooting up.

I would have never guessed I would have befriended such an...interesting...girl. I think it's safe to say that I'm never going to meet someone quite like her again in my life, but then again who knows...they could be millions of other Zoey's in the world that I've still yet to meet them.

Oh god, I pray that I never do. I think I'm fine with just one.

After careful consideration and numerous gaze shifts between the three of us, she releases a light sigh. "Alright then, but you have to come back at the end of the day to make sure everything is going as they should be. No exceptions. I expect the two of you to ensure that she comes to see me at the end of the day. Do I have your word?"

They both nod firmly as if they've just gotten an instruction from the head police woman and if they were to disobey they will have to get through some serious spanking. That is, if that's what police people do to show discipline towards their trainees. I highly doubt that though; they will probably make them run laps and go through extreme levels of fitness exercises that would most likely kill the majority of the teenage population. Including me.

Though, I didn't get to question their seriousness because I was already out the door stalking down the halls in hunt for a certain cat.

* * *

"I don't think you're supposed to be walking around like that right after getting out of a coma." A voice informs unhelpfully behind me making me freeze in the spot after hearing the familiar chilly voice ring in my ears.

I haven't been running, but my breathes seem to have hitched up to a ragged, unsteady rhythm. My gaze shifts to the side just in time to see the keeper of the voice emerge from the shadows of an abandoned hallway. "I think I'll survive." I manage to release, surprising myself how natural the tone was let out to be. "Er, have you seen this guy..."

"There's a lot of 'em."

I shake my head. "No, he's a lot older. Slight beard and kind of acts like a cat." I try to explain, though failing miserably. The guy is a lot harder to describe that I thought it would be. "Longish peppered dark hair...tallish..."

He raises his eyebrows. "Garfield?"

"Garfield? That's his name?" I repeat, clearly stunned. Wow. That just can't be a coincidence can it? The next thing I know he's going to be a lasagna addict or something.

He shrugs his shoulders. "That's what I hear."

"Yeah, um, do you know where he went?" He shrugs again. "How about my friends? Do you know where they are? What happened to Irene?"

"Shouldn't you of all people know that first years have been going missing lately? Yeah, I think the girl you're looking for is one of them." He answers casually, as if I've just asked him about the weather or something. "Why else would she suddenly disappear?"

I feel my heart plummet to the pit of my stomach. "Is Irene dead?" I wonder out loud, recalling that all the former first years that went missing didn't exactly have a happy fate in their hands.

He now half shrugs. "Most likely if the pattern continues. It would be a miracle if the rest of them come back alive as well to be honest. They'll be lucky if they come back at all."

"Natalie!" I hear Zoey's voice echo behind me seeming to have caught up with me after my little escape from the infirmary. She slows down to a stop as she reaches me and rests a hand on my forearm as if she's scared I'm going to leave her again. "What are you thinking? You know that Madame Pomfrey will slit our throats open if she knew we left you alone like that!"

"Sorry." I answer half-heartedly, insides sinking when I turn to find Aidan nowhere in sight. Why is he always like this? "Where did the others go?"

"Um, I don't know..." Zoey answers hesitantly, peering at Joey for a second too long.

"Are you lying?"

She immediately shakes her head. "No! I really don't know where they are! They didn't tell us; they just told us to make sure you are alright, that's all. Not a word about where they are going, I swear."

"They only told Lewis." Joey answers shortly afterwards, burying his hands deep in the pockets of his robes. "I think Michelle also told Keith as well because he wouldn't let them go unless he knew where they were off to."

"Wait why does Lewis know? I mean I get why Keith won't with Jennifer and Michelle and everything but why Lewis?" I inquire with furrowed eyebrows.

"He's good friends with Brian and Tamara. They just thought it would be safest for him to know if something important were to come up."

I nod in understanding; my mind is still fuzzy after processing all the new information. "Do you know where either of them are?"

Joey's gaze hardens visibly. "Oh no you don't. Don't even _think _about following them, especially after what happened to you. Not happening."

"I need to know where they are. They might need me." I say firmly, determined to get the map of their location. "You can't expect me to just sit around while they are risking their lives to find Irene. I'm friends with Irene too you know."

Zoey snickers as an amused smirk cracks across her face. "Are you sure it's not because you want to make sure litte Brian is safe?" I decide to ignore her. It turned out to be extremely difficult to ignore the arrogant teasing in her voice though, especially when it comes with Brian.

Why him of all people do I have to have a crazy past story with?

"Joey..."

He shakes his head firmly and crosses his arms across his chest. "Sorry, Nat. Maybe if you weren't in a coma for like three weeks straight I would consider going to find them with you, but you were. You can't honestly be considering to find them can you? You can barely walk straight without having to pause every few minutes to rest. You going will just be the end of you."

"But if I don't go it might be the end of five innocent lives! Don't you see that Joey? I need to know where they are. They can't do this by themselves."

"Wow, you really don't have much faith in lover boy now do you?" Zoey asks unhelpfully. I swear, someday my skull is going to break from those un-comedic remarks of hers.

I brush it aside as I wait patiently for Joey's response. It's when he turns his head to shift his gaze elsewhere when I almost gave up hope entirely. "Joey, if you don't tell me you know I'm going to go anyway right?"

He bites his lower lip, something he's been doing since as long as I can remember when it comes to making a difficult decision. "It's not safe, Nat. You're not in any condition to go adventuring into the unknown. It's dangerous. What if you were to collapse again? Do you know what that would make everyone feel?" I clench my jaw and now it's my turn to stay silent.

Zoey tugs on her boyfriend's arm gently, later muttering the best words that I've ever heard her say since the time we first met and bonded over The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. "Let her go," I look at her and couldn't help but smile wholeheartedly at her. "Besides, she needs to know if her little Boy Toy is alright. You won't want her crying her entire life not knowing if her Prince Charming is alright, do you?"

Of course, leave it to Zoey to ruin the moment. I couldn't help but feel my eye twitch at her choice of words to describe what I see Brian as. I have no comment. No comment whatsoever. If my head wasn't already throbbing, I would have send my head in the wall in hopes that it will mute her comments about him. Why? Why did Zoey have to be such a hopeless romantic when it comes to these kinds of things?

Joey presses his lips together as Zoey continues to tug on his arm, this time not saying anymore words of persuasion. Thank god for me.

"Two conditions." He finalizes, keeping his darkened eyes fixed on me. He holds his finger up in counting. "Firstly, I'm coming with you and the minute you feel bad or like you're going to pass out or something, we're coming back. No exceptions."

I nod, feeling that first point is fair enough in my case. "What's the second one?"

If possible, he green eyes turn more dark, almost black. "If anything happens and we get in trouble, when I tell you to run, you have to run."

My heads backs away slightly in stunned confusion. "What do you mean? Like...I just leave you?"

He just nods. "Do we have a deal?"

"Are you insane?" I bewildered at my cousin, who seemingly looks to be out of his mind. If anything, he should be the mental one.

"Not as much as you are."

I pause. "Wait, you're serious about this?"

"Dead serious." He replies, his face living proof of his words. What stuns me the most is how he can be so...so calm about all this. Now it's my turn to be completely torn on what I should or should not do. How am I supposed to make a decision like this? It's basically me choosing between family and friends. Nearly impossible to put it bluntly with you.

How is Zoey able to stand there on the sidelines and allow this conversation to even take place? I mean leave Joey? Might as well leave my entire life behind to be crushed to smithereens as well. Might as well kill myself in the meantime if it means I have to lose Joey forever like that. Especially if it's something that I asked him to drag us into. The scene itself would most likely haunt my dreams forever to the point where they are no longer dreams at all, but mocking, dark nightmares.

"Do we have a deal, Nat?" Joey asks me simply, as if we're just making a deal on who would wash the dishes on what day.

Even after all that, I don't yet have the answer yet. So instead, I turn to Zoey to ask her for her input. "What do you think?"

She shrugs."It's up to you, really. I mean, how much do you care about Brian's safety and well-being?" She asks me seriously this time.

"You know this isn't only about Brian, right?" I ask her flatly, now getting the tiniest bit annoyed about the whole thing. I swear, everything this girl has to say has something to do with Brian in some way.

Zoey releases a light chuckle. "Yeah, I know. Just...make sure you know what you're doing when you choose, because you and Joey both have extremely valid points on what you should do. I don't think you should go with what I say to make the decision, because I'm not part of it."

That's probably the first logical thing that has left her mouth all day, which almost stuns me in a way. I guess when you really think about it, Zoey isn't that bad at all when you erase the whole 'Team Brianie' side to her that seemed to have taken over her body this past year.

Joey is lucky to have her, he really is. I just don't want to be the reason to why they don't ever get to see each other again if we were to go.

I look over at my cousin, who is still standing there patiently. "Nat?" he asks for the last time before I finally make my decision.

* * *

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	16. Leaving, Locations and Bickering

Hi! Sorry it's late again...We've been kind of stuck recently at the end but now we have everything planned. Next week's should be posted on time. We hope you like it!

Warning! OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

"Fine. Let's go."

I grit out hoping that he didn't notice my voice crack slightly at the end of the sentence. I clench my fists in frustration. What else can I do? I know Joey is my family, the closest relative that I've got. We've known eachother since we were in diapers practically. But...the idea of abandoning my friends...They could lose their lives...Which would mean that I would lose four friends, gone from my life forever. I had the choice...I couldn't bear it if they did lose their lives and I just did nothing to help.

I look at some of the most important people in my life. Joey has a small smile on his face. But his eyes reveal everything. In his eyes, I can see the hurt and the little bit of disappointment. He also has a happy and proud look as if I had gotten the highest mark out of the entire year. Zoey has a mixed look. Her face holds the emotions of worry, conflict and a bit of relief.

Joey leans over and places a quick kiss on her lips. "We should get going then. Take care of yourself, okay?"

She nods almost numbly. "Promise. Make sure you and Nattie don't do anything stupid, alright?" I couldn't help but cringe at her new pet name for me.

"No promises." Joey mutters with a small smile knowing full well that we are going to be doing anything but. He reaches over and places a steady hand on the small of my back. "Come on, we should start catching up with a certain someone."

* * *

"Where are they!?" I yell in frustration. For the past forty five minutes or so we have been looking for either Lewis or Keith.

We walk around and emerge into the Great Hall. It's Sunday and about the time between lunch and dinner. The room is empty except for a few students doing work and the huge group of people across the room. Even from here I can hear the topic of their conversation. Keith. I've always wondered how he could have so many fans...it just keeps growing every year. He probably has at least fifty members by now...

I spot a group of third-year Gryffindor's. Joey and I begin to walk toward them, hoping they knew where Lewis was. We pass the fan club when I hear something that catches my attention.

"I wonder why Keith left...at the same time as that Gryffindor too. What was his name again? Leo? Oh who cares." says one of the Slytherin members.

"Yeah, they hate each other so it's not like they went together. I wonder why...?" replies her friend.

"I don't know...he should have told us. We're his fan club. We deserve to know!"

"I know right? Hey did you hear that he..."

I stop listening as I have to continue to walk before it get's suspicious. I don't really need to listen to anymore anyway. From the look on Joey's face I can tell that he's heard it too. We change directions and walk out into the empty hallway where we can talk without anyone hearing us.

"So the only two people who knows where they went are gone?" I ask disappointed.

"It looks like it. Leo, I'm pretty sure, is Lewis which means they're both gone. I guess to go after them." replies Joey.

"Well what are we going to do? We need to figure out where they went." I say worriedly. We just _have_ to find them. Just waiting here will make me go crazy. I really hope they're okay...

"Is there anyone else who would know? Do you know anyone else who is close with them?" asks Joey.

"I don't know..." I reply trailing off. I go through the names in my head. Jennifer...I don't think Collin would know... Michelle...no...Keith went. Tamara...both went as well. Brian... A name pops into my head.

"Anna. She's Brian's girlfriend. She should know something. He would have told her where he was going." I say suddenly.

"Oh yeah, she's been in the common room a lot recently. Maybe she's in there." says Joey.

"Yeah, let's go." I wonder if the room has changed in the month I've been asleep. How many classes have I missed even? Now I'm glad that I did all my homework...I guess I'm going to have to get ahead again.

* * *

"With lack of oxygen I die out but water can also kill me. Oil can make me worse but wood will spread me. What am I?" asks the bronze eagle knocker.

"Fire." I answer and the door swings open. The same riddle from the cave. I can't believe it was only two years ago since we've entered that cave. That was the point we knew that our years at Hogwarts wouldn't be so normal. And we were right for now; look at the situation we're in now...

The two of us walk inside. We find Anna in the common room curled up with a book. As we approach, I notice that it's a potion's textbook. I walk up to her.

"Hi Anna." I greet her. She looks up from her book and her face turns to surprise.

"Natalie! You're awake." she says surprised dropping her book.

"Yeah, I've been sleeping a bit too long." I joke.

"How are you feeling? You remember everything?" she asks.

"I'm still a bit wobbly when I walk around. I think I'm getting most of my memory back. There are still a few blank spots in my brain though." I reply.

"Well that's good." she says.

"We need to ask you something. Did Brian tell you where they were going?" I ask.

"Yeah...but why do you need to know?" she asks.

"I want to go find them. I'm worried that something has happened to them." I answer hoping that she'll tell us where they were.

"He told me not to tell anyone..." she replies looking down at the blue carpet of the common room.

"Please, Anna." I plead. "I need to find them. I'll go insane waiting here."

"Well...I guess I could..." she says. "We need to talk somewhere private. No one else can know." She leads us to the library section of the common room and into one of the empty rows of shelves.

"They went to Aberfeldy. You'll have to go through Misty Forest to get there. It should be quite a long walk so you should probably find another way besides walking to get to the edge of the forest. When you get to centre of the forest you should see a large abandoned warehouse, you can't miss it. It probably used to belong to Muggles. The people who have captured Irene have turned it into a temporary headquarters."

"Thank you so much Anna. We were getting worried that we wouldn't be able to find out where they were. No one else seems to know." I say thankfully.

"You...not we...I still don't think this is such a good idea." Joey speaks up after being silent for most of the conversation.

"When are you going?" she questions.

"As soon as possible." I reply.

"But you've just woken up." she says. "You can't go searching for them right now in your condition"

"I have to." I say simply.

"You don't _have_ to do anything." says Joey.

"I'm really worried. I need to find them." I answer. I know I don't have to but they're my friends. I know they'd do the same for me.

"Well if you insist then we can't really stop you..." Anna responds. "I wish you best of luck then."

"Thanks, I think we'll need it." Right now, I think we could use all the luck we can get.

* * *

We open the Hospital Wing door carefully, making sure that Madam Pomfrey wasn't inside. We open it a crack. I can see Garfield on my bed, this time in human form eating a bowl of lasagna.

"So you are an lasagna addict?" I joke as we walk in.

"I don't eat lasagna all the time. Only one meal a day." he replies as if that makes him seem less like the cartoon.

I pick up my bag from the ground and go through the contents. I reach in when my hand is cut by a stack of papers. Luckily my finger doesn't bleed. I look into the bag and see that everything is out of place. It's like a tornado has gone through my bag. Who could have messed with my bag...? It doesn't look like anything is missing...just searched through. Sigh...I'm going to have to sort through this. It took me hours to organize it the first time. My assignments and homework are all over the place as well. Hopefully none of it was wrecked...

I pull out the supply of food, the first aid kit, my spare clothes, my tent and all the things we would need to get to the abandoned warehouse. I double check that I have everything and even extra before putting it back into my bag. Joey has already done the same with his bag.

"Where are you two going? It won't be the Easter holidays for a while." says Garfield.

"We're not going on vacation." I say. "We're going to go look for Jennifer, Michelle, Tamara and Brian."

"So those were their names...got to remember that and wait what...?!" Garfield says shocked. You're going to go _look_ for them. I'm supposed to look after you. You can't just go off. Jennifer will kill me if you get injured or something."

"We'll be fine, we'll come back as soon as we can." I reply.

"I'm not supposed to let you go." he says as he finishes the lasagna. He licks his lips as if he wants more.

"We're going." I say.

"Well then maybe you should take my wand...I won't need it and it's always good to have a spare even though it may not work as well." He takes out a long oak wand, probably about 13 inches. I can't tell what core it has though. Near the bottom of the wand there is a head in the shape of a cat. It reminds me of Garfield in the cartoon but he isn't orange. It's simpler than I thought. He seems like the type to have a wand that'd be covered in glitter, feathers sticking out at the bottom. Well I'm not complaining; there's a chance that we have to use it.

He hands it to Joey. "You should probably take this. It's more important that you have a back up wand as you will be doing most of the fighting for now."

"Thanks..." he says as he looks at the cat head weirdly and puts the wand into his bag. "Do you by any chance have some brooms as well? We'll be going quite a long distance and we don't have our own. When we fly we usually borrow them from the school."

"Luckily, I do. I'll go get them. He transforms into a cat and jumps out the window into the snow. I haven't even noticed the snow. I've been so busy worrying about my friends to even look out a window. Joey says it's January. It just seems so hard to believe. I wonder where Garfield keeps his stuff? It doesn't look like he has anything in here. I turn to Joey. It doesn't look like he'll be back too quickly.

"So we should probably plan this out before he comes back." I say.

"Yeah," Joey agrees. "So I guess we'll fly about halfway today since it's already 2 in the afternoon. We'll set up camp somewhere hidden and we'll continue tomorrow. And then, we'll fly the rest of the way to the edge of the forest. We'll get off our brooms and begin to walk in. When it's the evening we'll stop and rest as it isn't safe to walk in the dark."

"I guess we'll continue doing that each day till we get to the warehouse. We'll plan how to get in when we get there." I add as Garfield jumps through the window ending the conversation. He had attached the brooms to his back. We take them off of him and he shakes the snow out of his black fur. He reverts back to human form.

"There you go. You two better be careful..." says Garfield.

"Of course we will." I answer.

"Well then, good luck. I really have no advice to give you." he says.

"Thanks." I reply. Together, we walk out the door, down the hallways and out the door into the cold winter afternoon.

* * *

The sun begins to set behind us. It's really cold up here. There's wind and it's winter.

I look to Joey who is flying right next to me. He nods and we descend and land on the ground. I don't remember flying being so tiring. But then again, Quidditch games aren't that long and I haven't been in coma's before each game.

"This looks like a good place to set up." says Joey.

We've landed in a small forest that should be good enough to cover us. We set up, and put protection spells around the tent. After, we circle the area to make sure no one else was around. Eventually, the sky turns dark. We take turns watching over the area. As I lay there the thoughts I've had since I woke up flash through my mind. They'll be okay. No, they _are_ okay. We will find them and we will go back and finish the school year. Everything will go back to normal. I'm about to drift off when one last thought flashes through my mind. My promise to Joey. If we encounter something or someone and he tells me to run I would really have to run. But could I really do it?

* * *

We wake up early the next morning. We eat some of our stash of food and set off for the rest of our flight. Soon, we reach the edge of the forest and we walk in after eating lunch. It's about 2 in the afternoon when we hear the sound of two familiar voices. They seem to be arguing about something.

"That's my squirrel! I caught it fair and square." yells Keith.

"No, I caught it!" yells Lewis.

Keith scoffs. "Pshh, are you kidding me? I clearly caught it first!"

We emerge into a small clearing. I see a dead squirrel on the ground between them. The two of them don't even notice us.

"No, I did!" yells Lewis.

"And they all say Gryffindors are honest and fair. Well honest and fair, my ass! What the heck are you doing here anyways!?" Keith demands, pointing at Lewis.

"Ha! At least we've got a great reputation, unlike a certain house I can mention! They actually live up to their name of being the slyest and most vain of them all! What do you think I'm doing here, you dumbass!?" Lewis counters.

"Dumbass!?" Keith roars. "Who are you calling a dumbass, dumbass!?"

Lewis growls at Keith with a hate filled look in his eyes. "I should be asking the same thing! Are you here for your girlfriend?" he sneers. Keith turns red in the face, and splutters.

"What!? I don't have a girlfriend!" Keith denies, "How about you, huh?! With that Gryffindor girl, Tamara!"

Lewis's jaw drops in surprise. "She's definitely NOT my girlfriend, you dumbass! We're just friends!"

They continue to bicker as I see a small animal sneak in between them and carry away the squirrel.

The two of us walk up to them and they finally notice us. They're about to say something when they notice the empty space between them.

"You stole it! You took it when I wasn't looking!" yells Keith.

Lewis glares at him. "No I didn't, you did!" he remarks.

"An animal took it; it carried it away while you were screaming at each other." says Joey cutting into their argument.

"Do you have any food?" says Keith suddenly forgetting about the whole squirrel argument.

"Luckily we brought extra..." I reply swinging my backpack off my shoulder.

"YES!" Keith and Lewis say in unison as if they've struck gold. They turn to look at each other in disgust as if saying something at the same time as him was a terrible thing. I hand them each packets of crackers. They eat it in three seconds flat.

"How long haven't you had food?" questions Joey. They seem to have been out here for a long time, probably at least a week. Their coats are torn and unless their bags are like mine, I don't seem to see a broom so I guess they walked here.

"Few days ago maybe. I found some berries yesterday though." says Lewis.

"Well that wasn't safe. It could've been poisonous." I say.

"I was hungry..." he replies looking longingly at the cracker package.

I pull out some trail mix and hand it to Lewis.

"You two need to share this." I say.

"We should set up camp. It's getting late." says Joey.

"We'll go set up while they finish eating. I hope they don't start arguing..." I say under my breath.. Joey and I walk to the flattest part of the clearing. We clear some of the snow and begin to set up. It only takes about five minutes to set it up but we begin the hear yelling after two minutes. Joey just nods at me and I go to investigate.

"Stop leaving me all the raisins! You're eating all the dried mangoes!" yells Keith.

"Well _you're_ eating all the dried bananas! Lewis yells emphasizing the 'you're'.

"And you're eating all the peanuts!"

"You're eating all the cashews!"

I just watch them argue for three minutes straight, not once taking a breath. I stand there in silence not exactly sure how to break them up. I swear, they're like some married couple. How have they lived this long? They would have wasted their breaths arguing and died of dehydration. Joey walks up and stands beside me.

"They're still arguing!?" asks Joey with a surprised look on his face. "It's been more than five minutes."

There's a loud shout when I notice the bag of trail mix has fallen to the ground.

"YOU DROPPED IT! IT'S YOUR FAULT!" They say at the same time. They glare at each other and they stomp off in different directions. Well this is going to be a long trip.

* * *

Joey and I are about to snap. Since we've left this morning they've been going on and on and on about who know what. They just don't seem to stop. I have everything in my bag but ear plugs. I really should add them when I get back. If I get back...Okay, I really shouldn't think so negatively. We will all make it out alive. It will NOT be necessary to abandon Joey.

"Stop eating all the good stuff!" shouts Keith as he snatches my other bag of trail mix from Lewis' hands. Probably wasn't a good idea to give them another one but I'm starting to run low on food...Those two eat twice as much as I do.

_Snap!_

We all hear it and stop in our tracks. We all listen but there are no other sounds besides the usual sounds of the forest. Keith and Lewis resume arguing and we continue walking. I hear another softer snap but Keith and Lewis don't stop: they're yelling so loud that they don't notice that my cousin and I have stopped. They continue to make their way through the snow. I'm about to call them when a black wisp of air swirls in front of them. A tall figure in black robes with a silver mask walks out of the black shadow. He raises his wand, about to cast a spell non-verbally to catch them off guard.

"WATCH OUT!" I yell at the top of my lungs. They look over and quickly comprehend the situation. The two step aside and the spell misses them by just inches. It's hits the tree behind them with a huge explosion. I would hate to see what would happen if it actually hit them.

Joey and I begin to back away, hoping they haven't seen us even if we know it's not true. Another Death Eater appears in a puff of black smoke. More begin to apparate into the area in the same manner. Spells, jinxes and curses begin flying at us in every direction.

"_Stupefy_!" I yell. I see sparks and before I know it I've been knocked back into a tall tree. Joey backs away till he's in front of me. He pulls me up. I pick my wand up from the small snowbank to my left. It's been snapped in half. By the looks of it, it was broken this whole time...Who could have done this?! When I need it most...What are we going to do!? I look around the area. If we stay here we'll soon be surrounded. Joey notices it and his normally green eyes darken. Oh no...he can't be thinking...

"Natalie, you-you have to leave." says Joey as he shoots another spell at a Death Eater. It hits him with not much effect.

"I can't leave you. There's no way I'm doing that." I respond looking down at my useless wand.

"You promised. You promised you'd leave if we encountered any danger. This is dangerous. Now go! Take my wand." he shoves his wand into my hands

"But..." I trail off. My eyes circle the area. If I don't go now I won't get the chance. Keith and Lewis are nowhere in sight.

"GO!" he yells.

"How are you going to protect yourself? You'll be defenseless if I take your wand now." I say trying to prolong leaving him.

"I'll be fine. Now go!" he says while looking forward, just jumping out of the way of a curse that misses him by mere inches. The familiar red light passes right by us. Two years ago, just outside the cave. The Cruciatus Curse. I look to Joey, his eyes pleading that I leave. I turn around and run; I don't look back in fear of what I'd see.

* * *

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	17. Passwords, Meetings and Time Limits

Hey everyone! Time for the next chapter! Enjoy!

Warning! OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DON'T OWN SPONGEBOB (FOR THOSE WHO NOTICE THE REFERENCE).**_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

I run till I can no longer see the flashes of bright lights and screams behind me.

Joey. I left him. I'm such a horrible cousin. I ran for my life and he's still fighting. This feels wrong; I really shouldn't have let him come. I could have sneaked out or just somehow begged him to just let me go alone. Though that would never have happened, it's like he knows what I'm thinking all the time. He just reads me like a book.

I push the thoughts to the back of mind. There's nothing I can do now. Joey never exactly told me what I would do if I actually had to run. I'll have to go on or this whole trip will have been a waste. I spin in a full circle to take in my surroundings. Just lots of tree and snow. Without the footprints I had just made I wouldn't even know which direction I had come from. Everything looks the same. I knew it was a bad idea to come without a map...A GPS would have come in handy at this moment if it would even work here. I'm still holding Joey's wand. I look at it carefully. Birch and Phoenix Tail Feather, 12 and a half inches. I still remember when we first got our wands. He practically set the shop on fire before he tried this one.

"_Point me_." I cast, holding the wand out flat on my hand. It points north, or at least I hope it's north. I wish I had my own wand. It would work much better than this one. I'd just finally adjusted to my last wand...Now it's broken again...My parents are going to think I'm irresponsible. My excuse to get my last one wasn't very good. I couldn't exactly say I was caught by a snake and it broke my wand kilometres under the school. It would just worry them. Worry...I really should have called them before I left. Well at least they should know I'm awake; Madam Pomfrey would have owled them. I wonder how Zoey's doing. She's probably dealing with Madam Pomfrey at this moment. I wonder what she said to her.

I guess I better get going; I want to make it farther before the sun sets. I take one last look around the area to make sure it is free of Death Eaters and walk in the direction that is supposedly north.

* * *

"Okay, now that rabbit was mine!" I hear someone yell.

"No it wasn't! It was mine. It's ALL YOUR FAULT that it got away." another person replies.

"MY FAULT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? You scared it. You were walking _way_ too loud."

"No I wasn't! You were. People could have heard you a mile away! Joey and Natalie probably heard you."

Wait, Joey and Natalie. They're implying that we're far away and not with them...Oh no, what could've happened to him? Don't tell me he...no he didn't, he didn't die. That's impossible. Even with Garfield's wand he'd be able to defend himself, right?

They finally see me.

"Natalie!" yells Lewis. The two of them run up to us. Just two.

"Are you okay?" asks Keith.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?"

"Yeah, where's Joey?" questions Lewis. "We thought he was with you."

"I thought he was with you..." I sigh. Please be okay...

"Then where did he go? We were chased into the thicker part of the forest so we thought that he'd be with you. When did you last see him?" says Keith.

"Before I ran..." I reply looking down. I feel like a coward. I ran away from the fight and left Joey with the Death Eaters...

"You ran?" asked Lewis surprised. "I didn't expect that..."

"He told me to...He made me promise that I would run in dangerous situations if he told me too..."

Keith notices the wand in my hand. "That isn't you wand; is it Joey's?"

"Yes..." I reply.

"Why? What happened to yours?" asks Lewis.

"It snapped in half...I couldn't even cast one spell. It backfired. Someone broke it and I didn't notice before we came..."

"Who could have done that?" says Lewis.

"I don't know, I wish I knew..." I answer.

"Then what was he using to defend himself...?" asks Keith.

"Garfield's wand..."

"The one with the cat head on the bottom?" questions Lewis.

"Yes..." I respond.

"Oh...then what are we going to do now?" says Keith changing the subject. I'm pretty sure we all have our own assumptions on what happened to him. I just know he's alive. I can feel it.

"We keep going, we're already behind schedule." I say.

"Well, let's go then." says Keith as we continue our journey through the woods.

"Oh yeah," says Lewis, "I forgot to ask, do you have any food?"

Sigh...

* * *

Snow gets into my boots as I trudge forward. So cold... My socks are soaking wet and there's no point changing it even if I can. The three of us have reached a part of the forest with snow more than thirty centimetres tall. The temperature has decreased drastically. Even in my thick jacket I'm shivering. I can tell that Keith and Lewis are probably as cold as I am. It doesn't help that their jackets seem to have claw like marks on them where the feathers had fallen out. We all couldn't sew so we had taped the holes shut. I should really ask then some time how it had happened. The cold has saved me from becoming deaf though; the two have stopped bickering for now.

"Is that a building?" asks Keith as he squints to look the distance.

I look in the direction he points. In the distance I can see a tall grey building.

"Yes! We're finally here." says Lewis with relief.

We walk the remaining distance and reach the tall building. It has to be a least three floors high. From the outside it looks exactly like an abandoned building but it doesn't seem to have been abandoned too long ago. The sign had been replaced with a picture of a pelican. Their logo I guess since we keep finding things about pelicans. Mutant pelicans as Jennifer keeps saying. The outside is made of grey brick and there are a few windows, newly added by the looks of it. They've also sealed off some of the emergency exits. From this side we can see no other doors.

The door of the warehouse is locked by a pass code lock. There could be millions of combinations and we don't even know how many numbers it might be. What are we going to do? Keith looks at the lock as if he's trying to figure the code. I don't think he'd figure it out the way he's doing it.

"So what are we going to do?" asks Lewis also trying to think of a way to get pass the door without alerting any guards. Where are the guards anyway? We haven't seen anyone since we got here. Keith continues staring at the numbers with a blank look on his face. He's thinking about something.

"What are you staring at?" asks Lewis finally after a few minutes.

"I'm trying to figure out the code." says Keith simply.

"By staring at it? Have you gone crazy? You can't just stare at it for so long it'll open." Says Lewis, his voice beginning to raise. Great, they're going to start bickering again. Note my sarcasm.

"Why not?" Keith remarks.

"It's not going to fangirl over you and open itself. The lock isn't human. Even if it was it probably wouldn't." Lewis smirks.

"I wasn't trying to do that..." Keith narrows his eyes.

"Then what! Saying 'open sesame' doesn't work!" yells Lewis.

I can't believe I'm stuck with these two...I hope this yelling doesn't alert the guards...

"I bet you 10 galleons that I can get this open!" says Keith with confidence.

"You're on!" yells Lewis, shaking his head thinking that'd it be the easiest 10 galleons he had ever made. Keith looks at the lock, presses five numbers and the door opens. Lewis and I are shocked.

"Pay up." Keith says holding out his hand for the coins.

"I can't give it to you now...we need to keep it in case of emergencies." replies Lewis.

He rolls his eyes in a rather annoyed manner. "Fine, but don't think I'm going to forget about it. Let's go."

We walk in, all of us looking around for any guards. There doesn't seem to be any. That's weird. Why would they leave this place so unprotected, not that I'm complaining. The inside of the building looks completely different from the outside. It doesn't look anywhere close to a warehouse. The building has been divided into separates rooms making it look more like a office building or a house. The room we've walked into is probably the main foyer. There are fireplaces for people who travel by floo powder and elevators to get to the different floors. All the doors are closed and it is silent all around. It's like they've all abandoned the building. They don't seem to have though. There's a lot of valuable objects decorating the place, dark objects maybe.

We walk cautiously, keeping alert. There are many doors, more than I can count. I put my ear to a door but I hear nothing. Keith and Lewis do the same. It's like the room's are all empty. Then, we reach a double door, decorated more fancily than the others. Silhouettes of pelicans flying border the door. This room definitely isn't small.

"Then what do you suggest we do with the bodies!? We can't just leave them here." someone yells. We glance at each other. We've all heard it. We put our ears to the door to eavesdrop more of their conversation.

"Definitely not your idea! We'd get caught." yells another voice, this one deeper than the last one.

"Then what's _your_ brilliant plan!?" yells the guy we'd heard at first.

"I'm not saying I have a plan! But your idea is dumb." yells the guy with the deeper voice.

Well it looks like Keith and Lewis aren't the only two who bicker a lot...

Someone else cuts in. "Both of you, sit down!" I can hear the authority in her voice. Chairs slide against the floor.

"Now, without arguing. Who has an idea of how to dispose of the failures? Anyone?" she asks.

Failures? What are they talking about? And disposing of dead bodies? Who have they killed...?

"Well they're only first-years. They aren't so big. Maybe we could bury them all somewhere." someone suggest.

Wait, first-years!? What is happening...? Are they talking about the students from Hogwarts? But we've already had proper funerals for them all...it can't be people from out school...

"How many do we have?" one of the guys from the beginning ask.

"25 from Beauxbatons, 20 from Durmstrang. We also have-"

_Crash!_

"...from Hogwarts" someone reports.

From Hogwarts? What? The crash from inside the room blocked out part of his sentence. Who are they talking about...? First-years from Hogwarts...who...oh no...Irene.

I hear crack from the other side of the door, probably the sound of someone apparating in or using floo powder.

"They are ready for testing" says the man who's just arrived.

"Good. Let's hope we don't have all failures today." says the woman. We will finish deciding tomorrow. It's late and we can't leave this place unguarded for so long. "

"You're all dismissed." says another voice followed by the squeaking noises of many chairs, at least 20 sliding back and forth. Shoot. Their coming out! What are we going to do? I look to Lewis and Keith.

"Separate." mouths Keith. Lewis and I nod and we all head in different directions, wands out ready if they surprise us. I find a small closet and hide inside. Just as I close the door with a soft click, voices fill the foyer. Hopefully Lewis and Keith have found somewhere to hide too. I hope no one needs any of the stuff in here.

The clothes smell like mothballs. They probably haven't been worn in a while. Well that's good...at least that lowers the chance of me getting caught.

* * *

After a few moments of waiting in the closet for safety, I finally decide to get out of the closet. I quietly turn the doorknob as much as I can which is pretty hard. Who knew a doorknob could be so squeaky?

I open the closet door enough to make a crack to be able to see what's going on outside.

"Quit struggling you brat!" A gruff voice shouts.

I hold my breath in anxiety. I try not to move as much as I can. What's happening out there? Who's the brat the man is talking to? Where is he taking that poor person? For testing...?

A door slams shut and its silent again. I look out to see that no one is in the foyer. Deciding it's okay to step out now, I silently step out of the closet and close it.

I wonder where Lewis and Keith are. I should look for them right now. I hope none of the Death Eaters have found them and that those two are fine.

Blood-curling screams pierce the silence that was here moments ago. The screams gives me goosebumps and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I turn in the direction the screams are coming from. I slowly creep to the door to where the screams could be heard. The crack under the door flashes with royal blue light.

"Please no more!" A girl sobs in pain, her accent seems to be French, heavily emphasized as she suffers intense pain. "_S'il vous plait_!"

A slap ceases her screams and pleading for a moment before continuing again.

"Silence you wench!" A voice snarls. The intensity of the screams increases as more flashes of royal blue lights up through the crack of the door. Screams of anguish continue to echo through the foyer.

"That's it, you bitch. I was trying to prolong your death, but now..." The man growls from behind the door.

"No, please...NOO!"

"_Futurum!" _The Death Eater roars. An ear-piercing scream fills my heart with dread and regret. I could have done something to help her...but I couldn't risk getting caught. Not now. Not after Joey...I quickly push the thought out of my head. Joey would knock me on the head for thinking of that.

After a second of silence I hear laughs from the door. Not normal ones. They are filled with...insanity and joy. Completely different from the girl's screams of intense pain that came out of her mouth earlier.

"I need to go home to my pineapple so I can feed Gary hehehe..." She giggles insanely. I hear clothes rustling and a sound like a fist fitting skin.

"If you don't let me go home, I won't be able to hear his beautiful meow ever again!" She pleads as her sanity slowly breaks apart.

"Tch. This one is a failure. What a shame. One of the best of her year." The man grumbles disappointingly. I hear a yelp as someone falls to the ground. I think the guy just pushed the poor girl down. What should I do? I can't do anything without risking getting caught myself. I think there's at least 20 people on this floor alone.

"How can you be so mean, Patrick? Aren't I your best friend?" She softly speaks with a creepy, hurt tone. A sound of frustration erupts from the male's throat.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" He hisses the death spell. A flash of green light can be seen from the door cracks. I cover my mouth with my hands to muffle the gasp that escapes from my mouth. I really am so sorry that I couldn't do anything for you...

A body collapses on the floor. I hear a kick hitting a body mercilessly.

"Trash. What possessed us to get a filthy mudblood in the first place?" He snarls.

"It's as you said before. She was one of the best in her year. So this wench had a good chance of being one of them." A new voice says nonchalantly.

"And what in the name of Merlin, was she talking about?"

"Why are you asking me? Why would I waste my time watching a _Muggle_ show?" The second voice says with distaste putting venom on the word Muggle. I should leave this hallway now and try to find the others. I hope they're alright after we splitted up. I turn and silently walk away from the room where two Death Eaters as far as I know are. I pray that I won't bump into any of them in the hallway.

In the air, Joey's wand is in my hand ready to knock anyone of them if I do happen to meet a Death Eater. After walking for a few minutes I hear noises from a storage closet, similar to mine. I get tenser as I get closer to the door. I cup my ear and try to listen to know what's going on. Then I hear a bam, making me jump a little.

"Oww! Watch where your elbow is!" A familiar voice hisses in pain.

"You're in too much of my personal space here, Slytherin!" An even more familiar voice barks back. A couple of more bangs and bumps could be heard from the storage closet. What in the world are the both of them doing in there? Together? A quiet sigh escapes my lips in exasperation. I turn, looking at the surroundings to see if any of them are coming near here.

I lower my wand and open the door. As soon as I open the door, I see two bodies falling towards me and quickly steps away to avoid being in that mess. With a loud bam, they collide on the floor in a tangled mess of limbs. Without even having to look at their faces, I know that it's Keith and Lewis on the floor right now, making such a big ruckus.

"Get off of me!"

"I would if I could, Gryffindor!"

"Then at least get your butt away from my face!"

"No, you get your smelly feet from my face first!"

As they argue more and more, my annoyance gets higher each time they yell at each other. I need to stop them from attracting Death Eaters here. Deciding that I have had enough, I reach my hand into my jacket pockets. I take out my gloves and slowly walk to where they're still bickering. Those two are too busy fighting with each other that they didn't even notice me approaching them.

I crouch in front of them. Keith and Lewis still doesn't notice me being right here. Annoyance just clouds my head. Who wouldn't? All they have been doing since I met up with them, was fight. I raise my hand that had my gloves and bring it down with no mercy.

_SMACK!_ _SMACK!_

"Ow!" "Ow!"

"What was that for, Natalie?"

"That hurt! I almost thought you were Michelle there for a second..."

I stare at them with disapproval and put my gloves away back in my pocket. I reach my hands out towards them to help them get out of the mess they're still in. They take the hands offered, and stand up but with a little trouble.

"Get out of my personal space, Gryffindor." Keith mutters while dusting his clothes off. Lewis glares at him and punches him at the arm in retaliation. "You were the one who got into my personal space Slytherin" he snarls.

"You were the one who dragged me into the closet with you!" Keith argues. Lewis opens his mouth but immediately closes it when he sees me reaching into my jacket pocket again for my gloves. Keith eyes my jacket pocket with an uneasy look in his eyes. My face breaks out in a small smile of satisfaction. Seems like they know what would happen if they continued to fight.

"Have you guys been in there all this time?" I inquire quietly. Both of them nod in response.

"Where did you hide?" Lewis asks.

"I was hiding in the closet in the foyer."

"Were you able to find out anything about where Michelle and the others are?" Keith questions with worry on his face. My eyes turn to the side, not looking at either of them in the eyes.

"No." I answer with guilt. "But I did find out about something very terrible." Keith and Lewis share a look of pure curiosity and a little bit of fear.

"What is it?"

"They seem to be having an experiment of some kind..." I start to explain. "A bad one. They're testing it on students. I think they're the reason why so many students are getting killed one by one." A look of horror appears on their faces. "I happened to stumble across on one of the experiments...I was walking by when I heard it. A girl from Beauxbatons I think, since she spoke French and English with a heavy French accent. A guy casted a spell that I've never heard of. And when he casted the spell..." I trail off.

"What happened...?" Lewis asks with concern.

"Did she..." Keith gulps a little, "You know...die?"

I shake my head. "No...not immediately. She went insane after the spell was casted. They said she was a failure and...finished the job." Both of them gets tense at the pieces of information.

"So that means Liza and that girl...what was her name...Anna...?" Keith rambles with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Her name was Anita." Lewis clarifies with an annoyed look.

"Oh...Right, right. Sorry. Bad with names." Keith apologizes although it doesn't look that sincere. A vein pops out on Lewis' forehead in anger. I quickly take out my gloves to show I will hit them again if they argue. Lewis takes a few breaths in and out, trying to calm down.

"Maybe we should all split up. We would be able to cover more ground that way." I suggest, putting my gloves back into my jacket pocket.

"Sure. The more further away I am from him, the better." Lewis agrees bluntly.

"I don't want to spend more time than necessary looking at his ugly mug if I can help it." Keith adds. Both of them glare at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Angry sparks fly between them.

"Okay. Let's go. Be careful you two." I wave them goodbye before rushing off quietly in a direction that I've never went to before. I'm quite surprised that we didn't catch any attention of the Death Eaters. By how loud those two were, I bet you could hear them miles away. The hallway, I'm walking across right now looks almost identical to the one I came from before I met up with Keith and Lewis. But I still keep my eyes open for anything worth looking at.

I pass a room. The door is open just a crack. I peer in to see that the room is empty. The only thing in the room is a large desk with a chair and a couple of filing cabinets. On the table is a pile of files as if someone had been reading it. I silently walk in and walk over to the desk. In the middle of the table a file is open. I skim through the top portion.

_Name: Irene Lee_

_Grade: First-year_

_School: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Testing Date: January, 20, 2013, 12:00 AM_

Testing date...wait what day is it today!? I look around the room hoping to find a calendar somewhere. I see one on the far wall. January 19. They're going to test her today?! It has to be at least 5 by now. We don't have much time, only approximately 8 hours. What are we going to do. I need to find Lewis and Keith and tell them the time limit...Someone taps my shoulder. Well there's one of them. Before I can turn around I feel a sharp pain in my head. Everything turns black.

* * *

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	18. Interrogation, Injuries and Washrooms

Hey everyone! It Winter Break next week which means we'll have a whole week to write. Hopefully we'll finish writing Year 3 soon. There should only be a few more chapters left of this year plus an epilogue. We hope you enjoy this chapter :D

Warning! OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**_

* * *

_**Natalie's POV**_

I wake up in a dark, grey room. Based on the lack of light, it's probably the basement. The only source of light is a single light bulb on the ceiling. I slowly get up. My head is still hurting after whoever that was knocked me out. I look around. I see three figures across the room which isn't too far from be because of the room size. It's too dark to see who they are. I go over to them and I finally see who they: Tamara, Jennifer and Michelle.

I've found them, well kind of. I kneel down and check their pulses. They're still alive, they're okay! Well they're not really awake but their alive! I sigh in relief. Now how to get out of here...and take them with me. There's no way I can take them all out of here by myself. There's probably no way to contact Keith and Lewis either. What are we going to do...?

The door to the room swings open. Someone in a silver mask and black robes walks in followed by another. My blood suddenly feels frozen in my veins. This could be the end of it for me. Shoot. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my parents yet.

They take a moment to scan the area, eyes locking on me. He points a boney finger in my direction. "You. You're coming with me."

I scoot backwards instinctively, not really anxious to get another centimetre closer to my possible killer.

I love you mom and dad. Thank you for putting up with me all these years.

His eye hardens and he takes a threatening step forward. I scoot another inch away from the threat. The guy looks even more irritated than he did when he first came in here.

"I'm not here to play games, Princess." He snarls under his breath darkly. Princess? Who is he calling a princess? Does it look like I'm wearing a dress? "If you don't come over here right now you're going to wish you still have legs to walk with.."

I gulp but stay planted in my spot. If possible, the guy standing in front me looks even more irritated than ever.

"Get over here, you brat." He hissed. "I'm not here to play games with you, Princess."

"Don't call me Princess!" I snap before I could stop myself. Oh shoot. I'm dead. The Death Eater backhands me hard. It was enough to knock me to the ground.

"Show respect, girlie! You will regret it if you don't." He threatens. Now it's girlie? The guy kicks me in the ribs with no mercy. A groan of pain escapes my lips. He grabs me by my hair and starts dragging me out of the room.

I try to get his hand off my hair by scratching his hand. But he keeps dragging me, making me wince in pain. The Death Eater drags me out in the hallway, passing through some other Death Eaters on the way. They snicker, jeer and point at me with cruelty. We finally reach another door.

I'm thrown to the ground, hard. My head hits the cold, concrete floor. They pick me up and chain me to a chair tightly. The chair is bolted to the floor. It looks like it was made for torturing...

"Who are you?" one of the death eaters begins to interrogate.

I stay silent. I'm not going to answer anything.

"I'm going to ask you again. Who are you?"

Silence.

"I warned you, Princess. _Crucio_!"

The pain is even worse than I remember. It feels like I'm on fire, as if knives stab at every inch of my body. The pain can never be properly described; it just can't be explained. My breathing quickens and I just scream; there's nothing else I can do. There is nothing you can do to stop the pain. If the chair wasn't fastened to the ground it would have tipped over. In this case, I'm not sure if that would have been a good or bad thing.

After awhile, the pain begins to decrease gradually, gradually probably isn't even the right word. The pain lasts for days. It could be months before the pain ends. I stop screaming; I couldn't scream any more if my life depended on it. I'm just exhausted. It feels like I've run multiple marathons, all in one day.

"Well, you see what happens when you don't talk. Now who are you?" asks one of the Death Eaters.

What do I do? I can't go through that again. Never, never again do I want to feel that pain. I decide to lie.

"Megan Griffin." I reply. I really don't know how I came up with that...Not the good at making up random names.

The other Death Eater writes my answer down on a piece of parchment.

"How did you get in here? The building is very secure. We've removed most of the doors and the passcode is one of the hardest to figure out." says the first Death Eater.

Hardest to figure out? How!? Keith got that in one try. I still question how he did it but he did it nonetheless.

"I climbed through the window. One of them was opened." I say, knowing they wouldn't believe me. Surprisingly, they believe me.

"Why are you even here?" he asks.

I think I've suffered through too much brain damage. I come up with one of the most ridiculous answers I have ever had.

"I lost my cat." Shoot, Garfield is going to kill me, that is if I ever give him his wand back

"You lost your cat?! Do you really expect us to believe that?! Don't write that down!" he yells at the writing Death Eater.

Sigh. There's nothing I can do. I'll just have to go along. "I really did! It ran into your building. I just wanted to find her."

"And how did the cat get in?"

"She walked in behind one of the Death Eaters when they went through the front door." I reply, hoping it's believable.

"What did you see? We found you in the filing room. You were reading something."

"Nothing interesting." I reply.

"WHAT DID YOU SEE?"

"I really didn't see anything. I've been forgetting a lot of things lately and I can't remember what it said at the moment."

"I'm warning you. Tell us now. We're not going to believe your lies! Do you want me to hit you with the Cruciatus curse again! Maybe I should just cast the Killing curse." the Death Eater threatens.

"I really don't know!" I say. I can't tell them what I saw. It would probably be worse than not telling them.

"Do you really want me to do what I did to your friend. I've been told he's just been brought back here."

My friend...? Keith and Lewis should still be fine, I saw Michelle, Tamara and Jennifer in the dungeons, so that leaves Brian and Joey...Oh no...'just brought back'...Joey...

The Death Eater mumbles a spell and an image, kind of like a thought bubble appears in the air. He moves it in front of me. Joey lays there in a pool of blood, probably thrown into a similar room like I had been in earlier.

"Is he...?" I manage to ask. I hold in the tears that try to fall.

"Dead? Yes, of course he is! Now do you want to end up like that?"

He goes on a rant but I can't seem to listen to what he's saying. Joey's dead...It's all my fault! It's my fault he died. I shouldn't have come. I'm really starting to regret it...Was this even worth it? This makes me feel so guilty. He died because of me. What am I going to tell my parents? His parents? Zoey? Our other friends? That is if I get back alive... Either way, it's my fault.

Someone hits me hard on the head and I'm brought back from my trance.

"Well, are you going to tell us what you saw or not?"

"Just a file about some girl, can't remember her name. I just saw that she was a first-year at Beauxbatons and she was tested today at 4:40. She's a Muggle-born and apparently one of the best in her year." I say, trying to take as much as I could from what I saw to make it seem more real.

He walks up closer and leans up to closer to speak to my face, probably to look intimidating, and it's working... "Are you sure you're not lying?"

"Ye-yes." I stutter.

"Are you really sure?"

"Yes."

He sneers. "We know you didn't lose your cat. Stop lying. Now who were you looking for? What were you looking for?"

I stayed silent. The Death Eater comes closer to me and steers his head closer to mine until we are nose to nose. His breath sounded ragged and stunk more than the manure that my grandparents use for their plants. "Are you really going to pull the cold shoulder on me again little girl?"

After not getting another sound from me he revealed an evil snarl and thankfully backs away. I would have originally been thankful for my well respected personal space, but the smirk on his face is making things hard to enjoy.

He turns and whispers something to the guy next to him. I'm not able to catch what it is but I have a gut feeling that it's something bad.

The other guy nods and retreats to another room while Bad-Breath continues to sneer at me.

"I know for a fact that you didn't come here as an accident. You didn't come here for a cat either didn't you?" He mocked, closing the distance between us gradually. "I think you're looking for someone in particular. Could his name be Brian Lee perhaps?"

I gulped. "I have no idea what you're talking about." I answered sternly.

His evil grin only grew wider with amusement as he threw his head back and laughed. "Are you sure about that, cupcake?"

I didn't say anything, which probably wasn't the smartest move on my part. But still, you can't blame me here; situations like these don't exactly come with an instruction manual.

The other man returns, but this time not alone. He roughly pulls a guy along with him like a useless sack of potatoes, my heart drops. It's Brian who looks so limp, beaten up and...not moving. No! Please, he can't be dead. Not after I just lost Joey. Please...I can't handle it, why him? It's the first time I have seen him so silent and not lively as he usually is.

Brian's clothes are in tatters, ripped in a lot of places. Whip marks decorate everywhere, his legs, chest, basically everywhere that you see. The wounds look recent as there is blood seeping through the wounds dirtying his clothes even more. Dried blood is littered on his clothes. Looking at his clothes makes me worry and dread over what he had gone through the past two weeks. His face has a whole lot of scratches, bruises and some dried blood. What caught my eye causes bile to creep up my throat. I hold back the urge to vomit. On his left arm there's a carving, small letters. It looks like they did it with a knife instead of a wand.

_Trash. Filthy. Half mudblood. _

"What did you do to him.?" I say darkly. I struggle to get out of my binds although it's completely useless. The monster chuckles with amusement on his face. His hand goes under Brian's chin, tilting it up. He makes Brian face me, giving me the full view of the damage. He opens his eyes weakly. Brian locks both his good and bad eye with me, giving me a meaningful look. I think I just shattered.

"Brian..." I squeaked out unintentionally.

The man harshly grabs him by the collar and yanks him upwards. Brian visibly cringes and obediently picks himself up from his bruised and scraped knees. "Are you ready to start talking yet, sugarplum? I'm pretty sure your little boyfriend here can't take anymore before he will willingly give up entirely."

I gulp, making the obnoxious grin on his face just grow even larger; he knows he'd to cornered me in a dead end.

"All of your friends are especially stubborn. I enjoyed all of their screams. I had the most fun with the Mudblood. Serves her right for ever thinking she can't show me respect." He laughs with sadistic joy. I look at him in horror. My friends are in the same condition as Brian right now? It was too dark to see when I saw them earlier...We need to save them quickly, especially Jennifer or they will...

Out of the corner of my eye, Brian ever so slightly shakes his head as if any other motion would draw another sharp hissing pain throughout his body. I try to ignore him, but it turned out to be the hardest thing I've ever did in my life.

I open my mouth, ready to give in and completely spill my cover when the the doors come thundering open with an impatient swing.

There Lewis and Keith, who might I add must have the greatest timing, come strolling in only to freeze just milliseconds after their arrival.

"Uhh...Is this a wrong time to interrupt?" Keith asks nervously. His hand fidgets to where one of his pockets is. I'm guessing that's where his wand is.

"Dude, I told you to take a right. You just had to take left! Some sense of direction _you_ have." Lewis seethes at him.

The Death Eater's grip on Brian's neck slackens upon finding a new targeted trespasser. Or trespassers for that matter. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh sorry man, we were just trying to find the restroom. I told you you should have just used the bucket." Lewis continues to bicker.

"I am not doing it in a bucket! Besides I need to take a dump." Keith mutters. That's too much information Keith...

"Ugh, gross! Too much information!" Lewis cries out in disgust.

"Screw you, Gryffindor.." Keith glares at him.

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that Slytherin." Lewis looks at him with distaste.

"Who are you brats?!" The man roars. He must be mad from being ignored by those two. He drops Brian with a loud thud to the cold hard floor. He groans loudly in pain. I wince at the thud. It sounded pretty hard. With those wounds it must have been pretty painful.

Lewis' eyes widen when he finally notices Brian in the room. "Whoa. Brian, man, what happened to you?"

With this, Keith steers his head over to Brian's direction with raised eyebrows. "Wow, he looks so different. Did he get a haircut or something?

"Dude are you blind? He is a freaking wreck right now!"

Keith shrugs. "Honestly, this is the best I've ever seen him look for a while now. Trying to decide whether it's the hair or the glasses thing...I like his new choice of attire though. It really suits him." Brian glares at Keith from the ground. He just ignores it.

Lewis slaps his forehead and hisses something under his breath that I can't quite hear. Then Keith grows tense and holds his stomach. "Oh crap, I really need to go..."

"Hold it!" Lewis turns to him with a look full of alarm.

Keith glares at him. "I've been holding it for the past two and a half hours! I can't hold it much longer, you idiot." Keith stares at him with disdain.

"You have five seconds to answer me. Who. Are. You." The man snarls at them with wand in the air, ready to strike.

"Who are you calling an idiot? I told you to do your business behind the bushes before we came in here!"

"I would never do anything behind a bush if you're around!" Keith scowls at the Gryffindor beside him.

"I swear I saw a washroom at the end of this hallway outside. Let's just go and come back." Lewis sighs exasperatingly. Lewis hesitates, looking back and forth between the barely conscious Brian and me. "Oh fine...I really can't hold it much longer." Keith mutters and open the door. He leaves the room with Lewis in tow.

"Don't leave this room or you will regret what you have done!" The Death Eater swears.

"We'll be right back in a moment." Keith sticks his head out in the door, giving a polite smile. The door closes silently. My mouth drops open in shock. Really!? They left Brian and me here in the monster's clutches? To go to the washroom!? I swear once I get free from this chair, they will get more than smacks from my gloves.

The man turns to the recorder. "What are you doing!? Go catch them, you fool!" He barks at him. The recorder winces at the volume. "No it's okay. I will just stay here and write." The Death Eater growls. He sounds awfully similar to a snarling dog...He blasts the recorder into the wall. "Go. Get. Them. _Now_."

The recorder moans painfully. If he wasn't the enemy I would feel sorry for him..."Hurry up you useless imbecile before they escape." The recorder nods meekly in response before pulling out his wand and heads to the door slowly.

"Those are your friends girlie?" The Death Eater smirks. "They're truly pathetic. And to think one of them is from the prestigious Tan family. Ha! What a coward. That Gryffindor was the most laughable I have ever seen throughout my years and I have seen plenty." He chuckles. The Death Eater points his wand at me. "Now where were we?" I gulp from the thought of what was going to happen to Brian and me.

The recorder opens the door and gets slammed into the wall once again. The poor recorder gets a hit to his head hard and slides down the wall, unconscious. I snap my head to the door. It's Lewis and Keith. They have their wands in the air, ready for battle. I look at them gratefully. They should finish this up quickly so we can get out of here and find some first aid stuff. They took my bag when they knocked me unconscious.

"I really don't appreciate the comment you made earlier about me." Keith stares at the Death Eater with cold eyes.

"Mocking Gryffindors? Worst mistake you could have ever made." Lewis spats at him. The Death Eater laughs maniacally, throwing his head back. His laugh echoes across the room. "Do you really think you can beat me? I have been under the Lord's service for over 20 years because of my skills."

"If Chang could beat an acclaimed best duellist of the century after Albus Dumbledore then I'm pretty sure we could beat the crap out of you." Lewis retorts.

"Ahh, that blood traitor? She beat the weakest loser from our organization. William Fabray is worthless and the most pitiful I have seen. The blood traitor and her friends stood no chance against our attack." The Death Eater chuckles.

"Ha." Brian snorts weakly. "With dirty underhanded tricks..." The man's face goes red with rage.

"Silence, you insolent brat!" He bellows, whipping out his wand at Brian. I widen my eyes. Oh no, he's going to kill him. Why did Brian say that!?

"Run!" I yell at him with pleading eyes.

"_Avada Ked-_"

"_Stupefy_!" Lewis casts the stun spell at the villain before he finishes casting one of the Unforgivable Curses.

"_Protego!_" The man defends himself. "You dare to fight against me you weaklings?" He sneers at them. "Over you killing my friend over there? Yes, I would dare." Lewis bravely retorts.

"Expelliarmus!" yells Keith but the Death Eater just reflects is easily.

"You think that would work on me? Are you kidding me? _Crucio_!"

Luckily they're able to dodge it. It misses them just by inches.

"_Reduco_!" yells Lewis. Yet again he just reflects it with ease.

"_Impedimenta_!" casts Keith. Spells fly back and forth across the room.

The Death Eater begins to cast spells non-verbally, surprising Keith and Lewis with different spells. He shoots a bright pink curse and the two of them fly into the far wall. Ouch. That's gotta hurt. I hope they're okay. They struggle but manage to get up again.

They both try to cast a spell at the same time when Lewis hits Keith's arm causing the spell to fly into the hanging lamp lit with more than twelve candles. The lamp comes crashing down onto the Death Eater. His robes catch on fire and his silver mask begins to melt. Well he's going to get at least a third-degree burn.

"I so totally did that on purpose." says Keith still with a bit of shock in his eyes.

Lewis snorts. "Yeah right."

I wonder why no other Death Eaters came by when we made so much noise, mainly because of Keith and Lewis. The two of them have scratches but are still in way better condition than Brian and I.

"Get me out of this thing." I say, tugging at the metal cuffs. Lewis nods and walks to where I am. He zaps at the metal bonds and I did the rest. I snap the rest of the metal cuffs and rub my sore wrists. There's fierce red marks where the bonds had held me down. I turn to where Brian is. Keith sits him up against the wall gently.

"Can you walk?" Keith asks with concern. Brian looks at the Slytherin in surprise but he quickly shakes off the shock and shakes his head. "No, I can't even stand up right now. Much less walk."

"Oh crap, I really need go to the washroom." Keith mutters. All of us quickly look around the room to see if there's a washroom. My eyes catch a washroom sign.

"There's one but..." I say, pointing at it.

Keith shakes his head in refusal. "No way am I going in there!" He crosses his arms like a kid having a tantrum.

"Are you serious, man? Just go." Lewis says with exasperation.

"It's the girls' washroom! I can't go in there!" Keith counters. "I'm a guy! A guy can't enter a girls' washroom whatsoever!"

"If you go out there and look for a washroom you're going to get attacked. We can't afford to lose more people." I say with a stern look. Keith gapes at me. "This is an emergency so just go already." I scold him.

"You heard her." Lewis smirks at Keith. He stands still where he is, not taking a single step. Lewis rolls his eyes before stepping forward to push Keith towards the ladies' washroom.

Keith groans but gives in. "I will get you for this." He points at Lewis before going into the washroom. Lewis cackles in amusement. I shake my head at their antics. I got to admit, they're quite amusing. I laugh a bit when Keith yells at Lewis to shut up from the washroom. Lewis laughs even harder, holding his stomach. Brian even joins in, but immediately stops because of the pain.

I quickly go to sit by his side. I don't know what to do since I don't have my bag with me right now. I just know that I have to help him somehow. "Uhhh..." I start. I can't ask him if he's okay, that would be a dumb question to ask. He's clearly not okay. "Do you have any broken bones?" I ask.

"I don't know." he croaks. "I feel too numb to even know if I've got anything broken..." I clench my hands from feeling helpless. "You shouldn't worry about me this much. Jennifer and the rest of them got it worse." he states. I freeze at the new piece of information. I gulp before asking, "How bad is it...?"

He thinks for a moment. "Bad." I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"How bad?" I say. He shrugs his shoulders and regret immediately shows on his face. He hisses in pain. Before I could say anything, Keith finally walks out out of the washroom.

"Ahhh, I feel so much better." he exclaims. Lewis snickers. Keith whips his head to give Lewis a dirty look.

"How was the washroom, Slytherin?" he bursts out laughing.

Keith grabs Lewis' arm. "Why not you go and see it yourself?" he hisses pushing Lewis into the open washroom door. Lewis looks at the washroom in horror. He drags his feet against the floor as much as he can. Keith is stronger than he looks. He almost got Lewis in the washroom when I interrupted them.

"Guys, we can't stay here for long. We've stayed here for too long already. Let's take their wands and go." I gesture at the unmoving figures on the floor.

"Could you guys also help Brian walk?" I asked them, placing my hands on my thighs to push myself up.

Brian places his scratched up hand on my forearm, effectively stopping me. "Whoa, and what about you?"

I rolled my eyes. "I can walk, don't worry." I ensured him, even if my throbbing head is telling me anything but that.

He just stared at me flatly. "Don't even think about it."

"Brian. I'm fine-"

"I'm not stupid, Natalie. Don't think I don't know that you just came out of a coma. You coming here is beyond insane for starters. If you're not careful you can permanently damage your brain." he warns me sternly.

"What does walking have anything to do with this? I'm fine. I don't need the guys to act as my crutches."

He then narrows his eyes at me. "You can barely walk in a straight line without wobbling from side to side like a drunk person. So either you stay here or get help."

Keith groans. "Oh for Merlin's sake let's just go before someone finds us." He yanks my arm and pulls me closer to him. "Now, would you prefer bridal style or a piggyback ride?" he asked me seriously as Lewis walks over to Brian and wraps his limp arm around his stable shoulder for support.

"Neither." I say bluntly.

Keith sighs. "If I could go to the girls' washroom despite my pride and dignity," Lewis scoffs at that. "Then you could do this." he says, trying to give me an encouraging look. But I stay silent. I focus my eyes on a crack on the wall I spotted earlier.

"Alright then." He replies. Keith scoops me up bridal style. I immediately start to struggle. "Let me down! Fine! Fine! Just give me a piggyback ride!" I yell at him. He grins at me with eyes shining with mischievousness. Someone clears their throat behind us. We turn to face the other two. Lewis looks at the both of us weirdly while Brian death glares Keith. The Slytherin just rolls his eyes at the two Gryffindors.

"You heard her. Give her a piggyback ride." Brian grits out, then he winces in pain. That's weird, he usually doesn't act this way.

"Alright, alright. I was about to do that you know. Don't exert yourself or you'll make your injuries even worse." Keith chimes. He finally lets me down. Keith crouch down low enough for me to get on his back. I get onto his back and he lifts me up in a piggyback ride.

"Let's go."

* * *

So that's all till next Thursday. We hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! We accept anonymous reviews.

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	19. Axes, Escape and Splitting Up

Hey everyone! Hope everyone's March Break(if you have it where you live) has been good. This chapter is dedicated to Skylar97 and readaholic1999 for favouriting and following. Thanks for your support! We hope you all like this chapter.

Warning! OCs

_**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**_

* * *

**Natalie's POV**

"We're going right." says Keith sternly, glaring at Lewis.

"No we're not, we're going left!" Lewis orders, glaring back at Keith. The both of them turn to face each other with fierce glares. "No. We're going right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Shut up you two!" Brian interrupts with a sharp look. "You're giving Natalie and I freakin migraines right now! You're making too much noise. If we have any of them after us, I blame you." He glares at them and then winces in pain.

"Alright, alright sorry. Don't push yourself." Lewis apologizes. "We're going left and that's final." Lewis stares at Keith with an _you-better-do-what-I-say_ look. Keith lets out a 'Hmph', turning away to glare at a spot on the wall.

"Fine. Let's hurry up, we need to find Jennifer and them." says Keith with urgency. I'm pretty sure his face is full of worry.

"Anxious to get to your girlfriend eh? Lewis smirks. Keith splutters.

"She is not my girlfriend!" He denies a bit too quickly. "Aren't you worried about them too? You shouldn't be talking. Isn't that girl from Gryffindor, Tamara, your girlfriend?" Lewis and Brian have scandalized looks on their faces.

"Oh gosh. What made you think that!? We're just friends! No more than that whatsoever." Lewis strongly denies. "So let's go already. Brian said they're in rough shape." Keith doesn't respond to the last thing Lewis said. We all walk to the left.

The four of us scan our surroundings with caution. We reach a corridor. Keith and Lewis help Brian and me lean against a wall. After, Lewis peeks around the corner to see if any Death Eaters were walking about. He signals that the coast is clear. Much to my dismay, Keith gives me another piggyback ride and Lewis helps Brian up carefully.

We walk into a long corridor. It stretches far to the right and left. "I think we should split up." Keith offers, still keeping a firm grip on my legs. Gosh, I hate piggyback rides.

Lewis snorts. "Why? You want Natalie all to yourself don't you?"

Brian's glare on Keith visibly darkens at the sound of me going alone with the Slytherin of the group. "Lewis will go with Natalie. Keith will come with me." He insists, eyes still trained on Keith with deadly slits.

"Look can I get down now? I can walk just fine. You're just wasting your energy carrying me."

Keith smirks at me. "Babe, I never get tired when it comes to you."

Brian looks like he's going to murder him while Lewis just has a smug, amused look pasted on his face.

Clenching my jaw, I pull and twist his ear as painfully as I can. Keith yelps in pain. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was just joking! Well not really but..." I just glare and him and force myself off his back.

Lewis laughs. "Ha! She totally rejected you! Wait until Hogwarts hears about this..."

I roll my eyes in annoyance. "Well they aren't going to hear anything from us until we start moving. I'm going left so you decide who's going with who." I inform them, taking a sharp turn as I clutch Joey's wand tightly in my hand.

"Coming, Nata-" Keith's voice gets cut off.

"Oh no you don't." I hear Brian's voice hiss darkly behind me. "Lewis follow Natalie." He then tells his friend.

Seconds later, I hear footsteps tailing mine. "You okay there?"

I recoil. "I'm fine but don't you dare piggyback me or I will smack you."

Lewis snickered. "I'm pretty sure Brian would smack me harder the minute he gets better so you're fine. For now, anyway."

Lewis pulls out his wand-which might I add, is still in perfect condition after all the battles it has gone through-and chants _lumos _seeing the light has gradually began to vanish as we go deeper down the hall.

I reveal Joey's wand and did the same, but not without feeling a wave of grief and worry for him.

"Why did you come anyway?" I suddenly ask out of curiosity. "Why didn't you just stay at Hogwarts? I mean I get why Keith went with the worry of Michelle and Jennifer and everything, but why you?"

Lewis looks surprised for a moment, but quickly covers it up. "Tamara and Brian are my friends. Besides, Brian loves his sister-despite how annoying she can be- and doesn't want to lose her. I know what it's like to lose a sister and its not something I want anyone to feel. Much less him. He can stop it from happening even if I couldn't."

Lewis and I aren't really all that close, so I don't know too much about his dead sister, or his past for that matter. I couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to bring up something like that. You didn't have to tell me."

He just shrugs. "Meh, it's whatever." With everything going on, the sudden conversation just reminds me of Joey. "Do you recognize the room they are in?" He then asks.

"Not really." I answer without needing too much time to think things over. "I mean, there are probably dozens of other rooms that look exactly the same as it. It'll be a miracle if we find them, actually."

"Found 'em." Lewis suddenly quirks brightly, sending my head flying upwards. He laughs lightly." Just kidding. But seriously, we'll find them, just don't be so negative."

I furrow my brows. "Yeah we probably will at some point. Question is if they'll be alive when we do, or us for that matter. Who knows...they could be dead right now for all I know. They were pretty beat up when I last saw them. Breathing, yes, but there's no way to tell for certain that they could have stopped. Jennifer especially seeing where we are and who we're dealing with right now."

Lewis just gives me a flat look before turning to inspect a nearby door. I couldn't help but think how Lewis' sister had died although I know it's not my place to ask him. No I can't think about this right now! I have to focus on finding the others. That's one of the main reasons why I even came here. Looking at the amount of doors that we haven't checked yet, we're nowhere near to halfway checking all of them.

"Maybe they're behind the door with the most security on it." I suggest.

Lewis stops and thinks."That's definitely a possibility." He replies.

"This corridor is so long though..." I say, sounding a little discouraged.

"We need to hurry. It won't be long until they see what had happened in that room earlier." Lewis presses, grabbing me by the wrist and tugging me along with him.

We pass numerous doors, all looking the same, but it's when we reach one at the very end of the corridor intersection when my head started to throb uncomfortably. Lewis didn't take too long to notice what was going on. He raises his gaze up. "I'm pretty sure we found the room..." He mutters after hearing Jennifer's stomach growls and muted complaints escape the creak of the door.

I blink. "Yup. This is the one alright. That is...unless there is someone else on this planet that makes the same noise as a stampeding elephant when they are starved. Not too likely though."

Lewis snickers and places his wand safely in his pocket, dimming the hall a significant amount; the only source of light is gleaming from Joey's wand. "Move the light over here." Lewis instructs, grabbing the head of the wand and steering it to the wall revealing a rather old and battered looking axe hung on the wall in what I'm thinking is supposed to be decor.

"They have axes on the wall?" I bewilder, gaping at it. "Are they crazy?"

"Hey, free weaponry. I'm not going to complain." Lewis mutters, swiftly removing it from it's two rusted hooks that are screaming to be snapped in half. "Meh, let them be idiots. It'll benefit us anyway. Move the light over to the door."

Silently, I hover the wand over the door feeling somewhat nervous of what Lewis is going to do next. I mean, what if one of them are leaning against the door while we are going to literally smash it to smithereens? We'll possibly end up beheading one of my best friends!

Though, I'm sure Lewis couldn't care less if it were Michelle. Can't say the same for the other two however; especially Tamara.

"Natalie, you're shaking." Lewis informs, looking between the vibrating light and myself. "I know. I must look like a crazed killer right now. Don't worry though, for all we know the door can do more damage to the axe seeing how old it is."

"I think we need to worry more about how much sound it'll make rather than that, Lewis." I murmur honestly.

Rolling his eyes, he lifts the axe over his shoulder and thrusts the blade against the door, making me flinch. He does it again. And again. And again until the door's lock and handle is basically no more.

Lewis steps back and retrieves his wand, lighting it up and pushing the door open to reveal the interior. I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to expect at this point. I mean, what if they are are dead? What if-

The room would have been pitch black if it weren't for our wands (well, Joey's in my case), but it didn't do a great job illuminating the room to it's full glory. I hear someone suck in a sharp breath. "What do you want?" it harshly snaps, sounding horribly vulnerable and lost.

The Gryffindor boy next to me sneers. "Calm down Slytherin, it's just us. You're lucky we saved your butt just in time." I roll my eyes at him.

"Lewis? Is that you?" Tamara voice then queried. I hear some shifting and before we know it the two are standing in front of us, the light from our wands able to show off the heavy bruising and scrap across their faces and limbs. Now it's my turn to intake an unexpected breath. "Natalie why you're here too? Aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary resting?"

"I'm fine." I ensured (once again). "Are you two okay? Where's Jennifer?"

Michelle points behind her. "In the corner. She's starving and barely has enough energy to get up. She's by far the most beat up amongst the three of us though. Being a Muggle-born in the trio does not exactly give you mercy."

"Alright, I hate to break up this sweet little reunion and all...but we really should go." Lewis butts in, glancing nervously behind his shoulder. "The noise is bound to summon some more Death Eaters on our trail. We need to catch up with Brian and that other Slytherin, get Irene and scram."

Michelle narrows his eyes at him as Tamara nods and retreats deeper into the room to get Jennifer. "Other Slytherin? You know he has a name right?"

"Yeah. Yeah. And apparently he can't hold in his business to save his life either." Lewis mutters, grabbing Jennifer's arm and swinging it over his shoulder as Tamara grabs the other and does the same. "Let's go."

We were about seven steps out when I noticed all three of my friends recoiling after every step they took. My eyebrows meet. "Are you sure you're okay? It's almost like you can't walk without wincing every two steps."

They all brush it off. "We're fine."

"Yo Gryffindor." Michelle calls, sending both Lewis and Tamara's heads looking at her. "Hand me the axe. They took my wand."

Lewis raises an eyebrow. "You're not going homicidal on me, are you?"

Michelle tsks and reaches her hand out. "Axe. Now." Lewis just stares at her hand. I sigh and shake my head. I have had enough of bickering. A headache forms as you can see the animosity between the two. "Lewis, just give her the axe." I snap. I rub my temples, trying to ease the headache. Lewis grimaces before hesitatingly handing the axe over to Michelle.

"Thank you." She smirks with triumph on her face. Lewis' eye twitches in annoyance.

"Let's go already." Tamara intervenes. Thank goodness. I don't think I can handle another argument. For the past few hours, I have heard nothing but bickering, death threats, bickering and pleas to go to the washroom. Everyone has their limits.

We all trudge on silently with caution. In Michelle's case, she looks like she would cut down anybody if they just annoyed her. Lewis, smartly, says nothing about that.

"We should have met them by now." I whisper loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Don't tell me that Slytherin and Brian got lost." Lewis says with disbelief.

"So you're the brats who've caused so much trouble." A voice sneers. The voice is obviously female, but very husky and dark sounding. Her voice sends chills down my spine.

"Who's there?" Lewis demands, his wand in the air, ready to fight. Michelle, Tamara and Jennifer curse.

"We need to get out of here." Tamara whispers with urgency.

"Oh? The blood traitor, half-blood and the mudblood escaped? Tch. Such bad girls." The voice tsks in annoyance. "I'll have to punish you for your misbehaviour." I hear a step forward. The four of us instinctively takes a step back in response. A group of amused laughs echo across the hall.

"Oh crap..." Michelle mutters.

"We're screwed. Especially if _she's_ with them." Tamara hisses.

"Are you looking for your other friends?" A male voice inquires with smugness in his voice.

"Show yourselves!" Lewis yells at them. I don't have a good feeling about this. Suddenly the lights in the corridor come on.

They reveal to be a group of Death Eaters with a woman at the front. She's the only one who doesn't have a mask on. The woman looks awfully familiar. Have I seen her before? The woman has dark piercing eyes that have the same shade as the night sky. She is quite tall and slim. Her raven hair is neatly tied up into a bun with many pins holding it into place. The woman has bangs framing her face perfectly. She has a sharp nose, with high cheekbones. She's wearing a Victorian gothic black dress that's suited to her curves. It's a big contrast compared to her pale skin. In short, she's a pretty woman but she has a sinister aura to her. I have a dangerous feeling about her.

I scan across the group of Death Eaters. There's about 12 or so. This situation doesn't look good. Not at all. Then my eyes catch something that makes me freeze.

It's Keith.

A Death Eater has him by the collar. He looks like he'd gotten the beating of his life. His clothes are torn and ripped and spotted with fresh blood. Keith's face has a lot of bruises and cuts. The place that looks like it has the most damage was his legs. They look so scraped. The Death Eater who has him in his hold, is holding a half of a wand. I'm guessing it's Keith's wand.

Michelle clenches the axe with rage on her face. All of us look at the limp Slytherin in shock and fear. Is he okay? Is he...alive? I shake my head to get these thoughts out of my head. No, Keith wouldn't die, not like that. He's a stubborn guy to begin with.

"What did you do to him." Michelle seethes.

The woman eyes her with amusement. "Is he your boyfriend, perhaps?" What is with all the boyfriend/girlfriend assumptions?! Is it illegal to care for someone who isn't the same gender as you without dating them? Why is it that-wait...

What happened to Brian?

"That's none of your business, Whyte!" Michelle barks. "Tell me, what did you do to him?!"

The woman clucks her tongue in distaste. "As a pureblood from your lineage, you should be more polite and well-mannered. But then again, I shouldn't expect so much if your parents are despicable blood traitors." Michelle opens her mouth to retort but gets cut off.

"Michelle. Calm down or you're going to get us killed!" Tamara warns. Michelle tenses but keeps her mouth shut.

"The half-blood is a smart one. You should keep your mouth shut if you don't want to end up like your precious cousin did." The woman smirks. Michelle grits her teeth and raises her axe looking like she's going to chop the woman in half right now.

"Who are you?" Lewis demands.

"You haven't heard of me? I'm hurt. I'm quite famous in the wizarding world." The woman pouts and crosses her arms in front of her chest. A Death Eater beside her, steps forward.

"How can you not hear about Lady Whyte you garbage!" The male Death Eater growls at them.

"She's our hero!" Another Death Eater adds.

"Lady Whyte has helped cleansed the wizarding world of the mudbloods, Squibs and Muggles. You should be grateful to our Lady!" The Death Eater who's holding Keith captive barks at them. Whyte looks completely triumphant over her achievements of murder. I've never felt so disgusted until now.

"Who would be grateful to anyone who has committed mass genocide!? I wouldn't." Tamara says with a cold look. Who exactly is this woman?

"You still haven't answered her question." I interrupt with an expressionless look. The lady looks miffed over the fact that most of us didn't know of her.

"Half-bloods are such ignorant fools." Tamara glares at her. "But Muggles are so much far worse. How can you even associate yourselves with them?" The lady sighs dramatically. I stare at her with annoyance. Why is she making a monologue when we just asked her a question?

"Cut it out already, Drama Queen. Yeesh, and I thought Chang over here was bad enough." Lewis interferes.

"Hey!" Michelle glares at him but it's ignored.

I cover my eyes with my hands. Great. More bickering. How much more am I going to be able to take before my head just explodes?

"How dare you speak before Lady Whyte is finished!?" A Death Eater roars in rage.

"Don't compare me to that blood traitor!" The woman hisses in outrage.

"You two are awfully alike." Lewis smirks. "But you're just a tad worse."

"Shut up before I cut your tongue out!" Michelle and the lady yell at him in unison. Lewis' smirk widens. "I'm Calypso Whyte and in no way am I the same to this blood traitor from the Chang's. Your family has fallen so badly for so many years." She gives Michelle a dark look.

"Listen you old hag." Jennifer's jaw drops in shock. Tamara, Lewis and I look at Michelle with wide eyes. "I'm not going to sit by and listen to you ranting and insulting my family's name. I'm going to-" I slap my hand over Michelle's mouth before she says anything further. I give her a pleading look for her to be quiet.

"You insolent little girl!" Calypso snarls, her beautiful features twist into an ugly scowl. "I'm going to kill you!" She howls. Her troupe behind her whips out their wands, ready to obey her commands.

Lewis waves his wand to cast a spell for defense as Calypso brings out her wand. A blast from far behind the group of Death Eater hits the ceiling making the lights collapse to where they stand. They disappear in a snap, leaving Keith behind. The lights are about to hit Keith.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" I cast the spell, stopping the lights about a few inches before it hits him. Michelle runs to where he is. She drops her axe as she reaches him. We rush to where the both of them are, keeping our guards up in case they come back with attacks.

I narrow my eyes in concentration to look at where the blast came from. Who just saved us? Was it Garfield? A moan of pain can be heard. We all snap our heads to where it came from. It sounds familiar. Is it...? Feelings of surprise and relief rush through me.

Lewis and Tamara gently lets Jennifer down. Jennifer winces in pain as she settles on the ground. Lewis runs to where the moan came from.

"Brian!" A yell of relief escapes from Lewis' lips.

"Ow. Easy, man. I'm still hurting all over." Brian's voice groans. I hear a grunt of pain. Lewis comes into the light with Brian's arm over his shoulder. He sets Brian down as gently as he could but his hands slip. Brian lands on his butt with a thud.

"Owwwww." Brian hisses in pain.

"What happened to you and Keith?" I ask worriedly but a moan from behind me cause me to stop. Michelle shakes him awake gently but firm enough to get him awake. Keith brings his hand up to his head, rubbing it. He tries to sooth the pain but to no avail. Michelle sighs in relief.

"Keith, are you okay?" She asks with deep concern.

Keith looks at her with wide eyes. Michelle grabs him and hugs him tight. "You idiot, I thought you got yourself killed." She pushes him at her arms' length after hugging him for a few moments.

He pouts. "Hey, you're one to talk. You've been missing for the past two weeks. I thought _you _were dead." He crosses his arms, making himself look like a little kid. Lewis looks like he's about to straight up gag all the leftovers of his trail mix out.

"Hey, that's not your wand." Jennifer observes though a pained wheeze.

Instinctively, I raise Joey's wand to eye's view. "Oh, yeah. It's Joey's, mine broke."

Jennifer looks around, before asking. "Where is Joey? Since you have his wand he must have came with you right?"

I open my mouth to respond reluctantly to her question but was cut off effectively after feeling a hand on my wrist. "What happened to your arm?" Brian then asks, now noticing the scarlet scratch along my forearm.

"Oh, it's just a scratch." I mutter, pushing my sleeve down. "I probably got it from grazing the broken lock or something. It's nothing."

Brian looks hesitant, but released my wrist and allowed it to slide anyway. He looks awful, just as bad of a condition as Keith, if not worse. I couldn't help but wince after seeing the blood on his own arm. "Are you okay? You're losing a lot of blood right now."

He smiles and nods. "I'll live. What I really need to focus on is finding Irene, really."

Jennifer shifted her eyes between Brian and I with an unreadable expression on her face. "Did you guys hook up or something? Because things seem...different, between you two."

My eyes widen in disbelief as Brian just stares flatly at her. She's lucky she is already beaten up, or else the next thing she would have gotten was a faceful of glove from me. She shouldn't even be joking at this point!

She laughs and tries to sit up, but giving up abruptly after her aching body protests. "I think we should split up. We'll cover more area that way and we won't draw nearly as much attention as we will if we are in a group." Lewis suggests, walking over to the three of us with Tamara trailing behind him.

Michelle and Tamara have definitely had it easier than Jennifer has. It looks as if they have just been punched or kicked a significant amount of times just enough for them to be towed into a dungeon without unbearable objections. Unlike Jennifer and Brian, they are able to walk decently like the rest of us.

Keith on the other side surprisingly has stood up and walked over to the group as well with Michelle close behind. "How should we split?"

"We split up into three teams." I suggest. Confusion appears on everyone's faces.

"How do we do that and to do what?" Keith asks.

"Two of us find some way to contact Hogwarts or the Ministry for help. We can't survive without any help. Then two of us go to rescue Irene. The time for them to experiment on her is very close so we need to find her as soon as possible." I explain. Brian has a horrified look on his face.

"What!?" He yells and Lewis slaps his hand over his mouth quickly to keep him quiet. Then Lewis yelps and takes his hand off Brian's mouth.

"That's gross, man." Lewis says in disgust, wiping his hand onto his clothes. Brian glares at him but says nothing. He turns to me.

"Natalie, how come you didn't say something about this earlier?" Brian asks. "We should have went for her first!"

"It's more important to save Tamara and the others first! How else could we save Irene? We wouldn't have gotten far if it was just the four of us." I counter, feeling hurt. Could he at least understand that?

"You should have still told me that they were going to do it today." Brian glares daggers at me. "It's my little sister that they're going to do horrible things to Natalie!"

"Stop it, you two! It's no time for a lovers' quarrel!" Tamara snaps. "Brian, we get it that it's Irene that they're going to experiment on, but Natalie has good reason not to tell you this earlier. You would have went nuts and got yourself killed." Then she turns to me. "Natalie, try to be more considerate when you break the news."

"You shouldn't be talking Tamara! You have no idea how I feel right now." Brian barks at her.

Tamara glares at Brian. "In a matter of fact, I do. Now shut up and listen to Natalie who actually has a plan." All of them turn to me, waiting to know what else I thought of. The tension in the air is so thick that you can cut it with a knife.

"As I was saying earlier, a team of two goes to save Irene. The time that they do it, is midnight. It's not much time left before that." I point at a clock on the wall. It's 11:25 pm right now. Nervousness appears on everyone's faces. "Lastly a team of three should go and rescue the other prisoners and fight the other Death Eaters or whatever they call themselves."

Silence fills the air as the rest of us absorb the plan.

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Michelle gives a smile at my way. Keith gives me a thumbs up and a big grin. "Let's do this."

"Never thought I would live and see the day I would agree with Slytherins but I'm in too." Lewis says with a small smile.

"Of course we're in!" Jennifer gives a big smile and wraps her arm around Tamara who also has a supportive smile. I turn to Brian with anticipation.

"Why would I say no? Of course I'm in, Natalie. But I'm going to go save my baby sister and no one is going to stop me." Brian warns everyone with a serious look on his face. But it immediately melts into a playful cute smirk that make my heart skip a little. Wait, what? Cute? Where did that come from!?

"Uhhh Natalie? Hello?" A hand waves in front of my face. I blink in confusion. The hand is Michelle's who retracts after she notices that I've snapped from my stupor. "What's wrong? Your face went all red and flustered." Michelle asks with concern. "Do you have a fever? You should have stayed at Hogwarts if you were sick."

"No, I'm not sick." I try to brush off her worries and I catch Jennifer's smirk. "What?" I give her a dirty look.

"Oh nothing." Jennifer snickers.

"Enough already. Who's going with who?" Lewis intervenes.

"There must be an Owlery around here. I know a lot about owls, and don't ask me why. It's a long story." I interrupt before anyone could ask me how. "So I could go."

"I guess I'll go with you since I don't think I'll be much help fighting." says Jennifer.

"I'm going to look for Irene for sure." says Brian.

"Then Tamara should go with Brian and the rest of you should stay and fight seeing as you're the least injured." I say. We separate into our groups. "We'll meet back up here as soon as possible. Good luck."

* * *

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	20. Wands, Stairs and Disguises

Hi everyone! We're sorry this is really late. We got a bit stuck about half way through. Since this seems to be happeneing a lot, we've decided to move our update date to Friday. That way, we could write even on that day since we wouldn't have to do homework. Sorry if that causes any inconvieniences. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Warning! OCs

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**

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_**Tamara's POV**_

"Wait!" Jennifer croaks out before we split up. We all turn to her.

"What about our wands?" She asks. I slap my forehead. How could we forget about something as important as that?

"We don't have much time though..." says Brain looking around hoping to find out what time it is.

"Then one of the groups should go look for them." says Lewis.

"Yeah," says Natalie. "We have two extra wands so I guess we could split those up. At least have one wand per group.

"So since Lewis, Keith and I will do most of the fighting they'll each have a wand and I'll have the axe." says Michelle picking the axe up from where she had left it earlier.

"Natalie has Joey's wand which leaves the other spare..." I conclude.

"Brian already has one of the wands and I guess Tamara has the other. Natalie and Jennifer will probably be doing the least fighting so they should be fine with just one." says Lewis.

"So who's going to look for the wands?" asks Keith.

"I guess we'll go and find the wands. We have the least to do." Jennifer says as she continues to wince in pain, leaning on the wall to keep herself upright.

"Well I guess it's settled then." says Natalie. "See you later."

"Bye." I reply. I really hope we'll see each other later...

* * *

"Oh geez, why am I stuck with you..." I mutter under my breath.

"Gee, it's nice to see that you care so much about me." He says sarcastically, purposely putting more weight on my shoulder. I give him a pointed look and he just grins mockingly at me. If I could I would jab him in ribs right now...

Great, now I sound like Michelle. Being trapped in a dungeon with her wasn't exactly the best thing for me. No offense to her anyway...

Speaking of Michelle, I wonder if she and Lewis are tearing out each other's throats out at the moment...Or let alone if they are still alive.

Besides, I don't think it's a good idea to leave Lewis in a room with Michelle and an axe. I doubt Keith would stop her from killing him, in fact, he'll hold him down for her if anything. Maybe we should have given the axe to someone else...but I don't think giving it to Jennifer would be any better at this point.

"Do you think I was a bit too harsh on Natalie back there?" Brian suddenly asks.

"Huh?"

"I said do you think I was a bit too harsh on Natalie back there?" Brian repeats his earlier question.

"Yeah, you kind of were." I answer truthfully. Brian turns slightly away from me. He bites his lower lip with concern. A small smirk comes on my face as Brian sighs and stays silent. "You should have laid off her. She meant well, Loverboy." I tease, earning myself a deathening glare from Brian.

"I have a girlfriend back at Hogwarts you know!"

"No offense to Anna and all but I think you and Natalie are better off together than with Anna."

Brian turns bright cherry red and splutters. "W-What!? How can you say that?" I shrug.

"I'm just saying what everyone and I think. Not Natalie of course. She has no idea." I told him matter-of-factly, "Are you telling me that YOU of all people don't have feelings for our Nattie? Like at all?" He hesitates. "She just doesn't realize it yet, Loverboy." I cackle. Brian glares at me and puts his weight even more on me in retribution. I stumble and I just barely catch ourselves before faceplanting on the cold warehouse floor. I glare at him.

"Quit it." I hiss at him in frustration.

"Then you quit it with the Loverboy business." He grits his teeth.

"Fine then, sheesh...Loverboy." I smirk at him. Then he just drops his entire weight on me with no mercy. We end up falling to the floor. Pain from my injuries flare up and I bite my lower lip to prevent it from coming out. A loud groan full of pain comes from beside me. I turn my head to face him with a glare promising pain once he recovers.

"You so deserved that." Brian chokes out. I roll my eyes and sigh out of irritation.

"Come on, Loverboy. We've already spent too much time here." I sit up, struggling to get Brian up on his feet. I hear footsteps coming far down the hall and freeze in fear. Oh no. Why now?!

"I swear, I hear voices down this corridor. I think it's those brats who escaped earlier." I curse under my breath.

"Damn it..." Brian curses our luck softly. I yank up, wincing when he silently groans in pain. I quickly scan our surroundings to see if there's any place to hide. We would have no chance if we have to fight now. Not in our condition. I spot a storage closet and quickly make our way there. I snatch his wand and wave it at the door lock.

"_Alohamora_." I cast the spell quietly. I hear a click, signalling that it's been unlocked. I shove Brian in the storage closet and I follow. Footsteps are coming closer to us. Brian silently shuts the door as fast as he could.

"You idiot! You said there's brats around here." A gruff voice scolds.

"I swear I heard kids here, though. They might have heard us coming and hid." A husky voice replies with annoyance. Brian and I hold our breaths in trepidation. Oh god, please don't check in here. Don't check in here. The both of us freeze as we see the shadows underneath the door coming closer. No, no, no, no, no. Dear god, please no.

"They could be in here." The husky voice suggests. The doorknob turns to open. No no no no no no. I clasp my hand over my mouth to stop a whimper from escaping my lips. Brian is stiff as a statue right now in fear. From the very dim light I can see the colour is draining from his bruised and scratched up face.

_Crash!_

The hand on the doorknob from the other side lets go. Brian and I release a shaky sigh of relief as quiet as we possibly could.

"What was that?" The gruff voice snaps.

"You idiot! You blew our cover!" Michelle's voice echoes loudly from the outside. I have never felt so happy to hear them bickering in my life.

"It was your boyfriend who pushed me!" Lewis' voice retorts.

"Get those brats!" The gruff voice roars. It sounds like a stampede out there as they try to chase Michelle's group.

"_Incendio_!" Keith casts the fire spell. Grunts and blasts from wands can be heard from the Death Eaters. "You see? This is why I hate kids." A new voice snarls viciously. It sounds dark and evil as a stereotypical Death Eater should sound like.

"_Reducto!_" Lewis yells over the blasts. Flashes of different colours come out from under the closet door. Brian lets out a small chuckle.

"Never thought their arguing would save my life." He says with amusement. I give a small laugh in response. But I just notice something weird. If this is a storage closet then why does it have so much space in here?

"Hey, Loverboy." I call out, ignoring the battle that's happening outside of this door. Brian turns to me with an annoyed glare. "Do you see a light switch anywhere?"

"Can you stop it with the Loverboy thing?" Brian asks exasperatedly.

"No can do Loverboy." I smirk. "Just answer my question already."

"Wait let me check." Brian gropes around him for a light switch. Then he cries out, "Found it!" The light flickers around. What we saw made our jaws drop. The supposed storage closet turns out to be a room full of wands. Out of the corner of my eye, something catches my eye. I run to it in joy and excitement.

"My wand!" I cry out in happiness. I grasp my wand tightly, afraid that once I let go of it, my wand would disappear into thin air.

"I have never been so happy to have my wand back in my hand." Brian says.

"We should look for the others' wands to give it back to them. Especially Michelle's." I wander around the storage room of wands. Muffled voices cry out from the other side of the door.

"This is the end of the line for you trash!" The dark voice says smugly. Brian and I run around the room looking for Michelle's wand frantically. I catch a glimpse of a very familiar wand. There it is! "I found it!" I alarm Brian. I snatch the missing wand and sprint to the door. I slam open the door. I get startled as I hear a very loud and hard thud from where I open the door. I hear a body collapse on the floor. Oops. I hope I hit one of the Death Eaters and not anyone from Michelle's group.

"BLOODY HELL!" The person with the husky voice yells out. Okay. At least I hit the right person.

"Nice, Tamara." Brian calls out from inside the storage room. The Death Eaters beside him whirl around to face me. Oh snap. I immediately raise my wand up in defense. I feel so safe with my wand in my hands.

I take a good look at the fight. Lewis and the others look more exhausted than the last time I saw them. But they are still in the same physical condition before we split up. The Death Eaters on the other hand...

Michelle must have gotten a good swing because there's blood gushing out heavily from someone who looks like the leader of the small group of Death Eaters. Not to mention the other doesn't have their mask on. The mask is left on the ground, broken in half. Both sides look pretty tired from the earlier battle.

"I told you that they were in there!" The Death Eater who still has his mask on hisses at the man who doesn't have his mask anymore.

"Enough already, you idiots." The Death Eater who was on the floor earlier snaps at them.

"_Aguamenti_!" I wave my wand at the three Death Eaters. One of them blocks my spell. I hear Brian coming up from behind me. I take a small glance. He has his wand in hand, ready to attack if needed. Keith takes the opportunity to attack.

"_Expluso_!" Keith snaps his wand hand's wrist. This attack causes the Death Eaters to fall off their feet from the sneak attack. One of them tries to attack us to gain ground but Lewis is quicker to make sure they stay there.

"_Protego Obice_!" Lewis creates a barrier between us and the opponents. Curses fly out the Death Eaters' mouths. All of them are far too colourful and vulgar to even dare to think of repeating them. Still being cautious, I approach Michelle with her wand in hand.

Michelle's face breaks out in a huge relieved grin as she spots her wand in my grasp. She runs towards me. I reach my hand out to hand her wand back. "Oh my Merlin's beard, my wand! I'm so happy to see it again in my hand!" She cries out expressively. Michelle grabs me into a hug. "Thank you so much Tamara." She whispers with deep appreciation. I hug her back with a smile.

"Shut it, drama queen." Lewis ruins the moment. Michelle glares at him as she stops hugging me. "You can't shut your mouth for a few more seconds can you Zhou?" Michelle snaps at him. Lewis grunts and turns away from her. Keith glares at him with annoyance.

"Take down the barrier charm." Michelle says, looking at the Death Eaters with a predatory look on her face.

Lewis contemplates and with a smirk he says, "What's the proper way of asking someone, Chang?" Michelle grits her teeth with an annoyed look on her face.

"You have got to be kidding me, Zhou. Just do it already." She snaps at him.

"What's the magic word?" Lewis inquires smugly. Michelle sighs exasperatedly.

"Fine. _Please_ take down the barrier charm." She says reluctantly.

"See? Is that so hard Chang?" Lewis says with satisfaction clear on his face. I roll my eyes at their antics. Is this really the time to be bickering!?

"Guys?" I cut into their conversation before their arguing gets any worse. "Now's not the time, remember?" They stop fighting and look away from each other. I turn to Michelle. "Why do you want him to take down the charm anyway?" I ask her.

"What do you think?" She replies with a raised eyebrow. I have a pretty good idea of why she wants to take it down.

I sigh. "Just take it down, Lewis. No point arguing over it." I turn to Lewis. He gives a dark look to Michelle, who has another triumphant smirk, before raising his wand up to bring down the Barrier Charm. As soon as the barrier between us and the Death Eater comes down, Michelle casts a spell before they even had a chance to cast a spell of their own.

"_Stupefy_!" Michelle points her wand at the Death Eaters with a grin. A jet of red light comes forth from the tip of her wand and hits the Death Eater in the centre first. Then Keith and Lewis follow her lead in knocking the enemies unconscious. I heave a sigh of relief as this fight is over as it is clear that the Death Eaters won't be getting up on their feet anytime soon.

"Did you guys know we were in there?" Brian finally comes out the storage room limping.

"Nope. Not at all." Keith chimes.

"When we got here, they were about to open the room you were in." Michelle continues. "We planned on ambushing them. But clearly that didn't happen at all." She gives a pointed look at Lewis. The person in question huffs and points at Keith.

"He pushed me as I already said before." Keith gives a look of disbelief.

"Excuse me? I didn't lay a finger on you before you blew our cover." Keith crosses his arms. "He didn't push you. I was behind the both of you so I would know, Zhou." Michelle says matter-of-factly. I rub my temples in an attempt to stop the oncoming migraine. Is this what Natalie was going through before rescuing the four of us?

"Guys. Stop it. _Now_." I emphasize the last word as much as I can. Sheesh, how many times do I have to stop those three from fighting each other. Keith grabs Michelle by the arm and walks in a different direction.

"Come on. We need to do our job. Go do your thing, you two. Zhou get your butt over here." He says, looking at us over his shoulder. Michelle leans closer to him subtly. I raise an eyebrow at the gesture. It's plain obvious she has a thing for her fellow Slytherin and childhood friend. Looks like Brian isn't the only one who's being stubborn about confessing. It's been known since day one of Hogwarts practically.

"Why are you trying to look cool now, huh?" Lewis snickers, following the Slytherins. "Are you trying to impress somebody?" Keith splutters, his face turning red. Michelle turns to give Keith a troubled look. Lewis smirks.

"Who says I am?"

"Keith, you like someone?"

"What? No I don't." He denies rather too quickly to be convincing. Lewis laughs out loud in the hall.

"Oh yeah? What happened last year with your supposed plans for Valentine's, eh? There's rumors about how you having plans for someone." Keith keeps his head turned away from Michelle's questioning gaze. Brian saves him from answering by interrupting.

"Lay off the dude for now Lewis. We need to save my precious annoying baby sister." I nod and spot a whole bunch of keys on one of the unconscious Death Eaters.

"Wait." I call after the leaving group. "There's keys on this guy." They come back running, pushing the earlier conversation out of their heads. "It might be keys to where they're holding Irene and the other prisoners." I take keys from the limp body. We all look at each other.

"Maybe it's better if we do what we need to do together." Brian suggest. "It would be more practical that way."

All of us comes to an agreement on that idea. We walk down the hall cautiously, ready to fight at any time.

We pass a clock. _11:51._

"Shit! You've got to be kidding me!" Brian curses out loud.

"Calm down. You're going to attract for Death Eaters." Says Michelle.

"How can I possibly calm down!? Irene is around here somewhere." Yells Brian.

"Well I went through the same thing last year!" Michelle counters.

"At least you know she's still alive!" He hisses.

"It's not midnight yet you idiot!" Michelle snaps back.

"They've escaped! They're right here." Yells a masked figure who had just walked around the corner.

They just ignore him. How can they just do that?

"Maybe they've changed the time! How are you supposed to know she's not..." Remarks Brian.

Michelle's just about to respond when the Death Eater says "Hey! Stop ignoring me! Now come with me and no one gets hurt."

Michelle just fakes a careless swing with her axe menacingly and the Death Eater backs away, falling sideways into a room.

"Can't you see we're discussing something here?" Michelle smirks.

We hear more than five to ten bumps, a loud crash, a feminine scream and whole lot of swearing. I look through the door. It wasn't a door at all. He had fallen down a flight of stairs. The others come to look as well. At the bottom of the staircase is two Death Eaters knocked out unconscious. One male Death Eater who tried to fight us was knocked out cold on top of another Death Eater who is a woman.

"Well that's what he gets for disturbing us." says Michelle. All of us give her a flat look. She shrugs her shoulders in response casually as if she hadn't just caused someone to fall down the stairs. I shake my head at her. At times, I really forget that she's a Slytherin...

"Anyway, we should hurry. We don't have much time left." I remind all of them. Brian looks like he's having a panic attack in the inside but trying to look fine for the rest of us. Michelle gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. She looks at him with encouragement.

"Don't worry, we will find Irene no doubt about it." says Michelle comfortingly. Lewis raises an eyebrow at the scene in front of him with an unreadable expression while Keith just looks a bit upset and concerned. I wonder why? Does that mean he has feelings for her back or is it just the protectiveness aspect of being her childhood best friend coming into play? Brian looks a bit better.

"Thanks."

"Now, putting that aside. What should we do about them?" Lewis nods his head towards the unconscious bodies at the bottom of the staircase.

"Uhhhh. Tie them up and shove them in a closet?" Keith suggests, shrugging his shoulders. I was about to reply when we all hear screams from a voice that sounds awfully familiar. It's Irene! My eyes widen in surprise. Brian limps quickly as he can in the direction of where Irene's screams are coming from. He almost falls over but Lewis quickly catches him before he does.

"We need to go now. We need to save Irene..." He murmurs but the pain from his injuries right now is clear on Brian's face.

"We need to come up with a plan first or we will get caught." Keith tries to calm Brian down. Brian hesitates before agreeing.

"Then what should we do?" I ask, biting my lower lip. This is one of the many times when we desperately need Natalie. A door slams, the sound lingering across the corridor. Oh gosh, she's in the room already! This is not good.

"That's it. I'm going in there." Brian declares before trudging to where the room is. I grab his arm and pull him back. He stumbles and would have fell on his leg wounds if it weren't for Lewis who caught him in time.

"You can't barge in without a plan. Most likely they would blackmail us by threatening to kill Irene. We need to come up with something to take them by surprise and save Irene." I try to talk sense into him. Brian let's out a 'tch' after calming down.

"Then what's the plan? We have less than six minutes left." Brian looks at all of us. We all try to think of something. After a couple of moments later, Michelle's face brightens.

"I have an idea." The four of us turn to her. "What is it?" I ask.

"If it's coming from her, it's going to get us killed..." Lewis murmurs loud enough for all of us to hear. I look at him exasperatingly while the two Slytherins gives him a dirty look. Brian gives his best friend a flat look.

"Anyways, maybe we could disguise as Death Eaters and get in saying we're going to throw the body into the usual room. When they turn their backs on us, we stun them." Michelle explains.

"That plan might actually work." Brian mutters. Keith smiles at Michelle and puts his arm around her shoulders. Michelle's cheeks flush a bit. Lewis gags at the sight.

"But how do we get the clothes and everything?" I ask worriedly. Michelle's face breaks out in a smirk that I have seen Melanie have many times. Her eyes turn to look at the out cold Death Eaters with a sly look on her face. Oh yeah. I forgot about those two...

"Then who's going to dress as them?" Keith asks. Brian, Lewis and I turns to look at Michelle and Keith. Those two are the most plausible choices to send out.

"What? What are you guys looking at us for?" Keith blinks in confusion. Michelle sighs. "They want us to go obviously."

"Oh. I see. I knew that." says Keith. Lewis rolls their eyes at him.

"Sure you did." Lewis and Michelle says in unison sarcastically. They turn to look at each other with disgust and look away from each other.

"Just go and change!" Brian pushes Keith and Michelle to the bottom of the stairs. Keith brushes him off.

"Alright, alright." Keith whines. The three of us watch as Keith and Michelle drags the Death Eaters into separate rooms.

"They're so heavy. What in the name of Merlin do they eat everyday..." Michelle mutters. Keith grunts in agreement. I can't help but laugh at the sight. Lewis smirks while Brian just looks at them, still being worried stricken. I give him a comforting pat on the back to remind him we're all here to save Irene. I look around the hall to see if there's a clock around here. Then my eyes catch the sight of a grandfather clock.

_11:56 pm_

Dang it, we only have 3 minutes left! Brian and Lewis must have caught where I was staring at because Lewis immediately grabs onto Brian who tried to go to where Irene is. We all walk down the stairs to the rooms Keith and Michelle were in.

Brian knocks the doors telling them to hurry up. We can hear them saying "We're coming, we're coming!" from inside the rooms. Then the doors open. Figures clad in dark clothing and silver masks emerge from the rooms.

One person who's dressed as a Death Eater but is wearing high heeled boots that almost reaches to her knees. She's wearing a gothic looking dress that is a bit big on her and cloak with gold lining. It's pretty much clear that the person underneath the mask is Michelle. The person next to her, Keith, is also wearing black cloak but one with a silver lining. He's wearing a black tuxedo with dress shoes to match.

"You guys wait outside the door until we tell you to come in." Michelle says, her voice is a bit muffled from under the mask. We all nod.

"What did you do to those Death Eaters anyway?" I ask curiously.

"I cast the binding charm and put her in a closet." Michelle shrugs.

"I did that too." Keith answers. Figures.

"Chang, even with those heels you don't look any taller." Lewis sneers at her. I facepalm. Oh gosh, why Lewis, why mention her height. Michelle stomps her heel on top of Lewis's foot. Ouch. I wince. That gotta hurt...

"Ow! F-!" Brian slaps his hand over Lewis's mouth I nudge him in the ribs.

"Don't say anything about her height. She has issues about her height." I tell him. Lewis glares at Michelle. She lets out a 'hmph' while turning away from him. We all head towards the door where Irene is in. I turn to look at the clock.

11:58 pm. Michelle places her hand on the door knob with Keith behind her. The three of us move far away from the door into a spot where people inside couldn't see us.

"Alright, let's do this."

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	21. Testing, Treasure Chests and Bombs

Hi! Long time no see(sorry about that). We've just been so busy with school and was having a bit of writer's block. Luckily, we've gotten through it, I think. We already have the next chapter written so we should be okay with updating next Friday. Sorry again but hope you enjoy this chapter. Also thanks to for adding us to author's alert. This chapter is dedicated to you. (Sorry this is pretty late)

Warning! OCs and Swearing

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN THE SIMPSONS.**

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**Michelle's POV**

My heartbeat starts to quicken as I place my hand to open the door. I take a silent breath and exhale. Ok, let's do this. I turn the doorknob and open the door slowly. What I see next inside disgusts me to the core.

The floors, walls and even the ceilings are spotted with dried blood. I could even see some fresh blood too. In this room, there's torture tools and machines. Most of them looked like they were recently used. I can even see some limbs thrown into a dark corner of the room. But what really disgusted me, was the smell. It reeked of blood, sweat and dead bodies.

I barely hold back the disgusted whimpers. Keith clasps my hand firmly. In the middle of the room is Irene looking quite beaten up but not as bad as the rest of us are, especially Brian. I look around the room for a clock. 12:00. It's time...

Two Death eaters stand on either side of her. They both have their masks on so I can't tell if I'd seen them before. The only difference is that one is slightly taller than the other. From the looks of it, they're about to begin testing. One of the Death Eaters stand wand out, about to cast a spell. They must have noticed us walk in as they both turn their heads to face the door.

"What are you two doing here?" asks the shorter of the two.

"Um.." I stutter. We really shouldn't have decided to just wing it. It works most of the time but this might not be one of them. I look to Keith. His face is covered by the silver Death Eaters mask so it's hard to tell if he's formed a plan.

"Umm..." I stutter again. The Death Eaters looks at us and narrow their eyes at us. Oh no...he's getting suspicious...

"We wanted to see how it's done...the testing..." Keith cuts in quickly saving us.

"Haven't you seen it? Lady Whyte showed us all a demonstration at the beginning of the month." says the shorter Death Eater.

"We're...new here." I say. "We haven't seen it yet."

"Well then, welcome to the Misty Forest Headquarters. Hope you can help us out. We don't seem to have enough people." the other Death Eater says. "I think you'll enjoy watching."

I won't enjoy watching...I can't let that happen...We won't let it happen even.

They turn back to face Irene. Irene's face is full of fear. She looks at the Death Eaters pleadingly, begging them not to do it.

We walk closer but they don't suspect a thing. We have to do something now before they do anything.

I pull my wand out and hold it to my side. I notice Keith do the same. Even though I can't see his face I can tell we have the same idea. We stop about two metres behind them. They're backs face us.

"_Futu_-"

"Now!" I yell.

"_Stupefy_!" We cast simultaneously. Keith hits the shorter Death Eater but the other manages to jump out of the way just in time.

"Traitors!" he yells. "_Avada Kedavra_!" The green light misses us by just millimetres. That was _way_ too close. I quickly walk over to Irene, well as fast as I could with these high heels...

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" casts Keith. The Death Eater deflects it with ease.

"_Reducto_!" I yell. The door slams open and all our friends, well not Lewis, storm in. Spells of many types and colours fly towards the Death Eater. We corner him and finally manage to knock him out. Irene's face brightens with joy and relief at seeing our friends. Keith and I take off our masks. Man those masks are stuffy. How can they always wear those around?

"Irene!" Brian calls out with relief and worry at the same time. Irene sobs and reaches out for her brother. Brian immediately grabs his little sister and she cries in his arms. I smile at the heartwarming scene in front of me. I pull Keith away from them to let the two siblings have their moment. Tamara locks the door behind us and leans against it.

"I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you." Irene chokes out, snuggling into her brother's chest. Brian smiles and gives a kiss on the top of her head.

"For a Ravenclaw, you're so stupid." Brian chuckles. "But I'm just so glad that my baby sister is alright." Irene doesn't say anything but instead clutches onto her brother even tighter. I look away to look more closely at the room we're in. It looks pretty gloomy, even more than our dungeon. But then again people got tortured and actually died in here...I shudder at the thought. I notice that jerk is looking at Brian and Irene with an unreadable look on his face. I raise an eyebrow at the sight. Is it about his sister? I can't help but feel sorry for that jerk. I nearly lost Milly last year and I totally freaked out that I even went as far as spending my first date with him. I can't possibly imagined what Melanie and I would have done if we lost our little sister.

I turn to take a glance at Keith. He has a blank look on his face. Then a sigh escapes his lips. "I wish I had a little sibling..." I can't help but giggle at that. He's so cute...No no this is not the time to think about someone being cute.

"What?" He asks, confused.

"Nothing." I turn away from him to hide the fact that my cheeks are feeling hot right now. Keith nudges me with his elbow.

"Tell me." He says stubbornly.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Stop bickering like a married couple will ya?" Zhou grunts, rubbing his temples. Keith turns red at what he just said.

I splutter. "W-We do not argue like one, you idiot!"

"The stuttering doesn't help and yes you do, Slytherin." Zhou smirks. I feel my eye twitch in annoyance.

I hear a sigh in Tamara's direction. "Guys, stop it."

"We do not." I repeat, thankfully with no stutter.

Zhou snorts, like the pig he is, at what I just said. "Like who will believe that, Chang." I grit my teeth. He's just so infuriating, a jerk and annoying! Ughhh! Keith pats me on the head. I swat his hand away.

"Don't treat like I'm a kid!" I huff.

"You're as short as one." That arsehole tells bluntly. I feel a vein popping out of my forehead. How dare he call me short!? I'm not that short! Just because he's over a head taller than me! His height at our age is too unnatural in the first place. Tamara immediately runs to me, grabbing my arms restraining me.

"I'm not that short, you pig!" I hiss at him. Keith glares at the bloody jerk.

"Uhhh, guys?" Brian calls out. "This is not the time to argue about people's short heights." I snarl him.

"I'm not short!" I try to go over and smack him over the head. Wait, wait calm down. He's injured. I will get him back AFTER he's better, I just need a reminder.

"You clearly are, shortie." The jerk declares. OK, that's it. I finally wrench my arm out of Tamara's grip. I charge at him, ready to strangle him to death. Then the door slams open. I just freeze about an inch away from putting my hands around his neck. Oh bloody hell. A group of pissed off Death Eaters stand outside that door, ready to kill.

Brian, Irene, and Tamara glare at the three of us.

"Thanks a lot." Brian grunts angrily as he picks himself up. Irene huffs and crosses her arms with a stern look on her face. Tamara stands there, with wand ready and a stern look glaring at us. Keith huffs and mutters, "What did I do...". I can't help but smile at him fondly. Then that jerk elbows me pretty hard in the ribs. Dang it, he has such a pointy elbow...I hiss at him in irritation. He just rolls his eyes at me, looking ahead at the Death Eaters in front of us. I also pull my wand out, ready to fight. I wonder if Jennifer and Natalie have owled the Ministry or Hogwarts yet.

"You've caused far more trouble than all of you are worth.." A Death Eater snarls viciously. "_Avada Kedavra!_" He yells annoyed that we continue to ignore him. It almost hits Keith.

"Dang it! That was so close." Lewis curses. Keith has a look of disbelief.

"Hey, I hate you, but not enough to kill you!" Keith points at Lewis. I stomp on both of their feet. Both of them howl in pain, clutching onto their foot in pain.

"Just stop bickering and fight already!" I cry out.

"I need some help here!" Tamara snaps at us while casting spells in defense. Oops.

They glare at each other and begin fighting.

"_Expelliarmus_!"

"_Crucio_!"

"_Petrificus Totalus!"_

_"Avada Kedavra_!"

"_Reducto_!"

All of the Death Eaters look pretty busy right now. But at this rate, we're going to get overwhelmed. I look around the room and finally have an idea. I sneak up behind the guy the pig is fighting. Don't get me wrong. It's because this guy has bad aim and would hit Keith sooner or later. I push the guy nearest to me into this mouse trap like trap attached to the wall.

"Fuck!" he curses. "You fucking brat!"

Keith smirks and pushes another onto this flat platform. From the looks of it, it looks like a stretching machine. He struggles to strap him down and I scurry over to help him. The annoying Death Eater starts howling curses at us to get off him. Keith grabs the guy's head and slams it against the machine hard. Then the Death Eater falls limp. We immediately strap him in case he wakes up. We sigh out of relief until a cry pierces our ears.

I whip around to see Tamara sliding to the ground against the wall. She's cornered by two huge Death Eaters. I grit my teeth.

"_Stupefy_!" I snap my wrist at the one that's menacingly approaching Tamara. The guy snaps around to deflect the spell. With the distraction, Tamara takes her chance.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" The spell flies at the other Death Eater. He immediately freezes and falls to the ground, stiff as a board. "_Incendio_!" A pained scream leaves from the Death Eater I was dealing with earlier. "_Expelliarmus_!" Tamara unwands the Death Eater.

"_Expulso_!" I shout, aiming at the ground of the Death Eater standing before me. He went slamming into the wall with no mercy...

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Tamara casts, pointing at a nearby bookcase full of heavy books. She points her wand above the Death Eaters and the bookcase follows her movements. She drops the bookcase on top of the remaining Death Eaters. They all curse from under the bookcase.

I release a breath. "Gosh, that was close."

"We should find the others. They've already sent the owl. I saw it out the window." Lewis says, completely out of breath.

Keith raises his eyebrows challenging. "We're fighting for our lives here and you were busy admiring the view!?"

"It's called peripheral vision, you heard of that right? Oh silly me, of course you haven't." Keith just narrows his eyes at him.

Brian rolls his eyes at them as Irene tugs the hem of his tattered robes. "We have to find the other kids they've kidnapped. I remember where they are. If we go now we can catch up with the others."

"Wait. I hear something." says Tamara suddenly. The room goes silent, or as silent as it can be with the cursing Death Eaters.

I walk over to one of the Death Eaters and knock him on the head with my axe. "Shut up. I've heard enough from you guys during the past few weeks."

The room goes silent and we hear a quiet ticking sound, sort of like a timer. It reminds me of those Muggle movies that Jennifer had me watch. You know, those movies with those bombs where you have to cut the red or blue wire. It was actually quite fascinating but I wouldn't find it fascinating if it happened to me.

"It sounds like it's coming from that chest in the corner." Says Tamara, walking over the to get a closer look. The chest looks like one of those treasure chests you would find in those pirate Muggle movies. Okay...maybe Jennifer's making me watch _too_ many movies...

"It kind of sounds like a bomb." I say, stating my observations. I attempt to open the chest but it's locked shut.

"_Alohomora._" Nothing happens. The room is silent while the ticking sound continues.

"Does anyone know how to pick a lock?" Asks Lewis.

"Too bad Jennifer isn't here, she would be able to open it." I say.

"She knows how to pick a lock?" Asks Keith surprised.

"Yeah, not sure how." Tamara replies. "She taught me but I don't think I could do it."

"Just try, it can't hurt." Says Lewis.

"I guess...We need a sharp object, something like the end of a paperclip or a pin." Tamara says, looking at the lock more closely.

"There's some pins here." Keith brings the box over to us.

"I guess that'll do it." She says while bending the end of the needle into a hook shape. She tries for about five minutes when we hear a small click. The lid still doesn't budge.

"Just keep trying." I say.

"And do what? That's all you were supposed to do."

"Just try again." Lewis urges.

"Fine..." Tamara replies. She continues to pull around in the lock.

"Oh snap..." She remarks. "I think I broke it. Oh, never mind it opened. We pull open the lid. It's bomb...A timer flashes into the air indicating that we only had an hour left...Is there a wire we can cut...? The bomb is completely wizard meaning no wires.

"Whatever you do, don't kick the bomb. Homer Simpson taught me that. You know, that fat idiot that's obsessed with doughnuts?" I burst out. Okay...I do watch too many movies.

"Jennifer would be proud." Says Tamara, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Who? What kind of name is Homer anyway?" Says Keith confused.

"Okay, we need to concentrate." Says Brian. He always seems to bring us back on topic. "This thing is going to blow up in an hour. We have to get out of here after we find Jennifer and Natalie and rescue the other kidnapped students."

"Let's get out of here." Says Lewis shutting the chest slowly.

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We spend the majority of the time in silence with the only evident sound echoing through the halls being painful grunts and groans. It's a wonder how Brian is able to balance on two feet without the wall supporting him. He being able to walk is a miracle within itself.

The six of us were making great progress, but the sound of footsteps approaching us was able to put that to a pause.

"Oh shit." Keith mutters darkly under his breath. "They've caught up to us already. Man. What steroids are those people on?"

"Whatever they are on, we need to give some to Brian."

Brian did not look amused. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that."

The footsteps starts to gain volume, which only meant that the steroid overdosed idiots were approaching us. Oh crap.

"Steriod overdosed idiots?" Lewis repeated, clearly amused. Did I just say that outloud? Oops...

"Is that seriously what you refer to us as now?" I hear Jennifer's voice muse. "You know, Natalie is under some sort of medication right now but I doubt she is overdosed."

I turn around and find that Jennifer and Natalie emerge from the eerie intersection. They looked tired; Natalie especially. I couldn't help but catch a look of strong relief in Keith and Brian's eyes. Tamara and I just sigh as the pig just standed there looking unaffected.

Correction: emotionless, uncaring, selfish pig. Believe me that's only the beginning.

The two gave us all a smile, and almost right after, Natalie shifts her eyes over to Irene who was still sporting her torn robes under the support of Lewis' arm.

"Irene. You're okay." Natalie's breathes, eyeing her carefully.

Irene looks as if she was about to burst into tears. Detaching the arm around her, she swiftly goes over to Natalie and hugs her tightly. Then she starts crying. "I'm so sorry."

Natalie looked confused, and awkwardly pats her back as she continues to cling onto her.

For a moment, we all just stand there until Lewis gently pulls her away from Natalie. "We need to get going. There's a bomb ticking and we only have so much time to save the others before the entire place and us included goes boom."

Keith chuckles. "Goes boom." and then he laughs. "It makes it sound like the place is going to release gas or something."

I just smack his arm. "Stop with the fart jokes idiot." I snap at him.

Keith just grunts in pain. "Just trying to ease the tension..." What tension?

"What tension, you idiot?" I ask exasperatingly.

"You know..." Keith trails off, directing his gaze to Jennifer who looks really tired and dead.

"Guys..." Brian's voice quivers, sounding anything but fine. That stops all of us, and we all turn to look to make sure he is alright. He starts to shake his head, as if doing so would somehow how would clear it. His eyelids were gaining weight and everytime he would try to open them again it was as if it were a massive struggle. It was when he closed them and they didn't open when we all started to panic.

We all went to reach him at the same time, but before either of us could reach him he had collapsed and fallen flatly onto the ground in a loud thud.

"Brian!" Irene cries with complete horror in her voice. The sound alone just sent me back a year ago when I found Milly down in the Chamber of Secrets. Complete horror and worry.

Keith caught her wrist before she was able to drop on her knees next to him. He clamped a hand over her mouth and muffled her screams. "Don't. It's over. He's gone." He tells her rather dramatically. Stopping to take a pause at every other word.

Lewis kneels down and pushed his middle and index finger against his limp wrist. He then gave Keith a flat look. "He's still alive, you fucking idiot. He's probably just passed out from all the blood he lost."

"Aw, dang it." Keith mutters, looking genuinely disappointed. I resist the urge to slap him across the face. "Oh well, I always kind of wanted to do that. Hey, Zhou when did you become a doctor anyway? What degree did you earn?"

"Oh for crying out loud!" Jennifer exclaims, clearly not pleased. "Can someone just pick the guy up so we can get going?" I want to freaking hug her at this point. "The sooner we get out of here the better. I'm so damn hungry it's not even funny."

And of course she had to ruin the moment.

"Yeah, Jennifer's right...sorta..." Tamara agreed (well sorta). She turns to Irene. "Which way do we go?"

Irene points to the shadowy hallway that I could honestly say is the last place I want to ever step foot upon. "That way."

Of course it is.

Keith reluctantly picks Brian up and perches him up on his back, winching against his weight. "Shit, what does this guy eat?"

"Maybe you're just a weakling." Lewis smirks.

"Oh lets just go already." I announce, not allowing him to react to his comment. Keith instead just grunts some obscene words under his breath. "Suck it up. You've always told me you worked out everyday. Pumping iron and all that stuff." I tease him.

We were probably walking for about five minutes or so when Keith stopped dead on his tracks. "I give up!" Then he drops Brian on the ground, not caring the slightest about his already bruised ribs. "Can someone just do mouth to mouth on his guy so he can just wake up and walk on his own two legs? I'm tired."

Lewis just glowers at him. "He's passed out due to excessive blood loss, you moron. He didn't fucking drown or anything."

"Are you sure it won't work? Because I'm pretty sure Natalie won't mind-"

Natalie just glares at him with complete murder in her eyes.

"For the last time, mouth to mouth won't work." Lewis continues. "Geez it's like talking to a four year old or something."

He rolls his eyes swiftly. "Yeah yeah, whatever doc."

We turn the corner, following Irene's directions to the dungeons where everyone else is kept. I hope we don't encounter anyone else on the way. We hear two sets of loud footsteps heading our way around the corner. Shoot, did I just jinx that? We all look at each other, trying to determine what to do.

"We should knock them out before they see us." I whisper. They nod. I gesture for Tamara to come over while the rest stay in place. We slowly creep and peek around the corner. They get closer and closer, walking at a moderate speed.

"Okay, one, two, three. Now!" I shout.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

Our aim is precise and the two Death Eaters fall to the ground, stiff as a board. If their faces weren't covered by masks they'd probably have shocked and jumbled up expressions on their faces. I wave them over.

"So what do we do with these two? asks Keith.

"Do what we did with the last two." I reply. "Find a room and hide them in there."

"_Incarcerous_." says Lewis, ropes wrapping around the two Death Eaters. Keith puts Brian down, leaning him against the wall and helps us hoist them into the dark closet we had found not to far way.

"Oh my back is killing me. I can't stand to carry him anymore." says Keith groaning and sitting against the wall.

"Weak." Lewis coughs attempting to hide the comment.

"I can hear you you know..." Keith glares.

"Yeah, I meant to do that." he replies with a smirk.

"We have to keep going." says Irene. "We don't have much more time left."

"Just carry him." I say. "It can't be too much farther."

"Fine...I don't care how dumb this looks but I'm carrying him this way. It's better for my back." He picks him up off the ground and carries him bridal style.

Lewis starts humming 'Here comes the Bride'.

"Shut up!" Keith snaps.

The jerk just ignores him. He finishes humming and says. "You may now kiss the bride."

"Nobody is kissing anyone." Tamara says. "We need to get to the dungeons."

"It's just down these stairs." Irene announces once we reach the top of a long set of staircases.

"I have to carry him down there?" Keith complains. "Why can't we just leave him here?"

"Death Eaters might get him." says Lewis. The girls just sigh in irritation. I walk to Keith who still has Brian in his arms. "Do you want me to carry him?" I say. Keith gives me a weird look.

"How can I let a girl carry this guy?" Keith says indignant. I raise an eyebrow. What was that suppose to mean? Brian can't be that heavy. I tug at his arm.

"Just let me do it for awhile. You have been holding him all this time. We have spent too much time just looking for the prisoners." I say. We stare at each other until Keith finally gives in.

"Fine. But tell me if he starts getting heavy." He tells me with a worried look. The pig snorts and gets Irene comfortable on his back. Keith gets Brian on my back with Tamara and Jennifer's help. I try to get him in a comfortable position on my back. I grunt as Brian puts all of his weight on me. Ok, Keith is right. This guy is heavy...but fortunately not as heavy as Keith complained.

Zhou laughs. "Man Slytherin. Looks like your girlfriend here is more ripped than you are. Not in a good way either." Keith hisses at him. My right eye twitches in annoyance. If I could, I would show him how ripped I am...

"Dude, let's just go." Tamara snaps at us. Today was the first time I heard Tamara yelling this much. I nod in agreement, starting to trudge down the stairs. What does this guy eat? He looks like a lightweight but he weighs this much. But I will _not_ say anything about it. I don't want to give the prick any satisfaction.

* * *

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	22. Freedom, Annoying People and Tears

Hey everyone! Time for the last chapter of Year 3(excluding the epilogue)! We really hope you enjoy it :)

Warning! OCs and swearing.

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING.**

* * *

**Michelle's POV**

I mentally sigh in relief as we finally reach the end of the staircase. I can feel my grip on Brian slipping and I immediately try to fix that. I turn to Irene.

"Is it here?" I ask. Irene nods and points at the end of the _long_ corridor. Of course. It's always at the end of a corridor.

"Let's hurry. We only have about...40 minutes left." Tamara urges. We all start to sprint down the corridor. Well in my case, more like jogging. Once we reached the door, I carefully set Brian down gently as I can.

"Tamara, do you think you can get this open?" Natalie asks Tamara, sending a worried glance to the unconscious Gryffindor.

"Ask Jennifer." Tamara points at Jennifer who still looks really tired and beat up. She walks up to the lock and examines it.

"Anybody have anything that I can pick the lock with?" She turns to us. Tamara hands her the needle she used earlier. Jennifer looks at it a bit before deciding it's good enough to use. I sneak a glance at Keith. All of his attention is on her with his intent gaze. He has a glint in his eyes whenever he looks at Jennifer. My gut wrenches at the thought of the feelings and meaning behind it. Tamara and Natalie sends a look my way. I look down to see my fists clenching really tight.

A click snaps me out of my trance. I look up to see Jennifer opening the door with a smirk on her face. Keith cheers and we all have a relieved look on our faces.

I throw Brian's arm over my shoulder, trying to get him up. The others walk into the room where it holds the prisoners, but Tamara and Natalie stays behind to help. I can't help but send a sad look at Keith's back when he's following Jennifer into the room.

I finally get Brian on my back once again.

"How much time left?" I ask them.

"About...30 minutes left." Natalie answers looking a bit panicked. My face morphs into a disbelieving look. Time went by that fast!? But then again, we did spent a lot of time arguing...

"Let's go." Natalie says and we all walk in. What I saw in there, did not make me happy. At all. Keith is making moves on Jennifer. I feel jealousy clouding my mind. I bite the inside of my cheek to try to contain my anger.

"Slytherin, what the hell are you doing? Leave Jennifer alone." The bloody git growls at him. Jennifer clearly looks uncomfortable. My jealousy calms down a bit at the the sight.

"Hey, look! There's a bunch of keys on. Over there." Tamara points at a hook that's holding a ring full of keys. Well that's good. We don't need to spend any time on getting over ten locks open. Tamara grabs the keys from its hook and starts to unlock every cell. Once again, Brian starts to slip from my grip. I grunt as I get him onto my back again.

"Do you need help, Michelle?" Natalie asks, eyeing me and Brian with worry evident in her eyes. I nod immediately. I carefully set Brian into Natalie's waiting arms. After setting Brian down, I take this chance to take a good look around the place. Cries of joy and relief go across the room.

"We're finally saved!" A girl who is clearly French sobs.

"I can finally go home!" A boy with a heavy Bulgarian accent shouts in joy. I wince at the sight of their current condition. They all look beaten up, filthy and look like they haven't eaten in weeks.

"Let us out now!" A little girl cries out, shaking her cell bars. I crouch in front of her cell, giving her a comforting smile. "Don't worry, we'll get you out very soon." The poor girl looks like she's from Beauxbatons.

"Oh my gosh! Guys, come over here!" Tamara cries out, running into a dungeon cell. I jog over to where Tamara is. The sight causes my jaw to drop to the ground. Holy Merlin's beard, it's Joey. But it's his condition that made me so appalled. He looks 10 times worse than Brian and that is saying something. What did they do to him...What should we do? He's bleeding all over! Natalie gasps at the sight of her cousin. She quickly runs over and checks his pulse, not before carefully setting Brian down. Then Natalie lets out a sigh of relief. Good, he's still alive.

"Zhou, aren't you the doc? Do something." Keith nudges the prick. The bloody git just ignores him, surprisingly, and heads over to where Joey is. I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around. An arm wraps around my shoulders and a face gets very close to mine. Dude, talk about invading personal space.

It's a guy with red hair, not as dark as Aidan's. His hair is just a shade more lighter. His eyes are sky blue, full of mischievousness and playfulness. There's something else in there that I can't seem to put my finger on.

"Uhhh..." I start, not knowing what to do. What in the world is this guy doing? He gives me a look and...did he just wink at me? I blink at him, feeling weirded out.

"Did it hurt?" The guy asks, with a weird looking smile.

"Yes, very much." I answer, thinking that he was asking about my injuries.

"Oh really?" He wiggles his eyebrows with a weird look on his face.

Keith nudges me in the ribs and gives me a look full of amusement. He leans in; I flush involuntarily at the distance. "Michelle, he didn't mean your injuries." He whispers then leans back, chuckling. Huh? What does he mean by that? Then it hits me. Pick-up lines...

"N-no! I didn't mean _that_! I thought you meant my injuries and stuff..." I deny about the meaning of what I had answered earlier. The guy throws his head back, laughing out right. My eye twitches. Great, here's another guy that annoys the heck out of me. Just having one bloody git is enough. I don't care if he's cute and all.

"You're so amusing." He smirks at me. I give him a flat look before roughly pushing his arm off around me.

"Gee, thanks." I scoff, looking away from him. Two fingers goes under my chin and turns my head towards the rude guy. He leans in closer than before. I blush. Hasn't this guy ever heard of personal space!? I look at the corner of my eye, hoping Keith would get me out of this situation. But no. He got his attention on Jennifer. Again.

"The name's Elliot. Elliot Drake Prince Adonis Kiselev." He winks at me. Dang, that's even longer than my name! I slap his hand away from me. "Your name is Michelle correct?" Elliot asks, taking my hand and gets down on one knee. Then he kisses the back of my hand. Oh Merlin. Out of reflex, I whack him over the head.

"Ow!" He cries in pain before keeling over. I eye him in distaste. At the noise, the others turn around to see me, standing over the pervert on the ground.

"Are you guys done? Can we leave now?" I say quickly. I want to get far away from this Elliot guy as possible.

"We just finished, Slytherin. He's clearly not gonna wake up anytime soon." The git points at the unconscious Joey. I quickly walk over to where Brian is and try to pick him up but an arm tugs me back.

"Can't let a lady do a man's job." Elliot winks, before getting Brian careful as he could onto his back. He's clearly more stronger than Keith, I gotta admit. The prick snickers.

"Chang isn't a lady. Not even close." The git smirks. I feel a vein popping. How dare he say that!? He's not much of a gentleman either. "Everyone's more ripped than you, Slytherin."

"I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Keith snaps, not even sparing a glance at the pig. Keith picks up Joey, and swings him over his shoulder. I wince at the sight. That would hurt later, especially with his wounds.

"Be careful with him!" Natalie scolds him.

By now, we manage to get them all out of their cells. Now we just have to wait for help. If it comes...I look at the clock on the wall. They have so many clocks in here. Were they on sale or something?

20 minutes left...We should get out, _now_.

We walk back up the stairs trying to be as silent as possible but it probably failed. On the way, I just try to ignore the guy's flirting. This guy is seriously asking for a punch in the face. We go through multiple hallways, trying to find an alternate exit. I see a red light in the distance. We find out that it's an illuminated sign that had the word "exit" on it. Guess they didn't bother to remove the signs from the doors when they turned this place into their headquarters.

"Yes!" Jennifer yells excitedly, running up to the door and pushing it open.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Jennifer looks up in shock wondering what she had done wrong. Tamara goes up to the door and brushes off some the dust that had been on the sign.

_Emergency Exit. Alarm will sound when opened._

Oops...

"If this isn't an emergency I don't know what is." Jennifer spat holding the door open as Natalie ushers the students through the door. Tamara and the prick lead them outside. Elliot and I wait until the last of the students go through the door.

"Okay, let's go." I say as we close the door. We open the door at the end as our eyes are blinded by the light of the sun. When was the last time I was outside. It's so fricking cold! Why did they have to steal our jackets?!

"Do you want me to warm you up?" The annoying pervert wiggles his eyebrows at me.

"No thank you!" I retort, rubbing my arms. "Just take care of that guy, will ya?"

We aren't alone. All the Death Eaters that had been in the building have all spilled outside into the cold. They circle the building, surrounding us at all angles. Well isn't this fricking perfect! We have 6 wands, 2 extras and an axe against over 60 wands and probably some dark objects. We decide to hand the 2 extra wands to the two that seem to be around our age, instructing them to try and protect the others. I spot a girl a few meters away.

"Hey girl! Come over here." I shout, pointing at him.

"I'm a guy." The guy glares at me. Whoops...My bad.

"Sorry, I thought you were a girl." I gesture to his red pyjamas and long hair in his face." He glares at me with a flat look.

Lewis just scoffs from behind me, clearly overhearing what had happened. "What a fail. You can't even tell the difference between a boy and a girl."

"Can you really blame me?" I mutter casually, shrugging a shoulder and giving him a pointed look. "I met you, didn't I?"

He doesn't flinch. "And what a very unfortunate day that was."

"Today was very fortunate, if you ask me." The pervert grins at me. "You're the best thing that happened to me in weeks." I don't know if I should be disgusted or flattered.

"Shut up!" I snap at him, handing the wand to the guy I'd mistaken as a girl before. I give the guy an apologetic look and he just glares at me. Talk about holding a grudge...

"He totally has the hots for you, Michelle." Keith laughs. I frown. Why couldn't he tell that I'm not interested in Elliot? Like at all. I'm more interested in another guy. Isn't it plain obvious about who I like? I mean come on. My friends always tell me that it's too obvious when I'm around him. Boys are so fricken dense.

"_Protego Dictavit_!" Lewis casts. A dome-like shield raises around us giving us temporary protection. We get the students to stand in the middle while we stand around the the edges, excluding Brian and Joey of course.

Spells begin to fly, our shield weakening by the second.

"_Expulso_!" I yell, the spell flying into a crowd of Death Eaters. I don't even look to see if it makes contact as I spin to deflect another spell. Flashes of colour fly everywhere, mostly Christmas colours from their side while ours are casting spells in all the colours of the rainbow.

"_Expelliarmus_!" I hear Tamara yell beside me.

"_Reducto_!"

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

"_Aquafenti_!" That last one brings back memories. I look to see that that Death Eater had fallen to the ground.

White swirls of mist emerge in front of us as we hear multiple sharp cracks. The mist is replaced by the teachers of Hogwarts and some people who I don't really recognize. I guess they're from the Ministry of Magic. We keep the dome up and continue shooting spells. People keep emerging from white puffs of smoke and soon we outnumber them. In the corner of my eye, I see Calypso Whyte disappear in her own puff of smoke, only hers is black.

"One minute!" Natalie yells suddenly as her iPod alarm goes off. I guess she somehow had gotten her bag back when she went to owl the school and the ministry. All of us brace for impact. There's no way we can get far now, not through the thick snow. Hopefully, Zhou's barrier can hold up.

BOOM!

The impact blasts me far away as I fall to the cold, snowy ground. Everything seems to go in slow motion. You know, like in those action spy movies where people jump out of explosions. Seriously...I need to stop watching movies. I land on top of a somewhat soft snow pile. The pile groans. Okay, piles can't groan...I carefully turn to look under me to see what I had landed on. It's the guy from earlier. Oh great...

"I was right. You really did fall from heaven." He says with a smirk but I can tell it caused him a great deal of pain.

"More like from underneath if you get what I mean." Zhou manages to say. From the looks of it, it looks like even breathing hurts for him. This is perfect! I've landed on top of the two most annoying people on Earth... "Chang here, I'm positive, emerged from hell or something." He then turned to Elliot. "I think you should continue going after her. It almost bugs her more than I do, and that's saying something. Besides, I enjoy watching her squirm in annoyance. Keep this up and you might just gain yourself a girlfriend, and I won't ever have to see her face ever again. A win-win situation."

Lewis then turns to me and glares. "Oh, and Chang, can you get your ass off us already? Brian is already losing circulation here and I'm sure you don't want this Elliot guy ogling at it. Now move."

Elliot smirks. "Is my lap too comfortable for you to leave behind, gorgeous?" Obviously noting the fact that I haven't yet moved from my position on top of the three. I quickly get off of them and glare at the both of them. But I look at Brian worriedly. This guy has already been through a lot.

"Aw. Why didn't you stay any longer? I wasn't complaining." The pervert smirks. I look pleadingly at Brian. Wake up, man! Don't leave me alone with these two!

"Come on. Enough with the lovefest, you two." The ignorant prick snickers, getting Brian onto his back. "We need to find the others." I sputter. What lovefest!?

Elliot smirks and slings an arm around my shoulders. "As much as I would like to continue...but he's right, babe." My eye naturally twitches, not only because he just called me babe, but more on the side where he actually agreed with someone like that pig. Elliot just shrugs nonchalantly. "Besides," His eyebrows wiggle up and down, "We can always continue later."

I look at him in horror. Oh god. I can't take this anymore! I push his arm off, and quickly walk way ahead of the both of them. The pig laughs behind me and Elliot chuckles.

"I like them playing hard to get and feisty!" He calls out after me. I flush out of embarrassment. Kill me now. Then I see a green light coming my way. I jump out of the way, rolling in the deep snow. Okay, Merlin, I know I said kill me now, but not literally! I try to look for my wand in my pockets and I groan. I must have lost it when I went flying because of the damn explosion!

This is so fricken perfect! I'm gonna die without much of a fight and with those two idiots.

"I finally found you." I freeze at the familiarity of the voice. I groan again. It's Calypso Whyte.

"Michelle!" Elliot cries out my name and I hear footsteps come along beside me. Elliot puts himself between me and that wench. That's sweet of him; I can't help but to complement. Gah. Focus here! I let my mind go off too much at bad times.

"You have made much more trouble than necessary, little girl." Calypso says softly but with a dark tone. I gulp. I slightly tremble at the memory of the torture she had put me and my friends through.

"Oh, is the little girl scared of me?" She laughs mockingly. I give her a dirty look. "Trying to act big now, aren't you?"

The lady scares the crap out of me. She waves her wand with a menacing air around her. "You certainly are a part of the Chang family. Annoying like bugs, a nuisance." The wench ponders, taking slow steps towards us. We instinctively take steps back, trying to create more distance between us and her. What do we do now? We're going to get crushed if we duel against her. I don't want to die here. Not now.

"But, they're also so easily crushed like the flies they are." The wench sneers at me. I clench my fists in outrage. So she's the reason why my dad's brother went missing so many years ago? Then what about...?

"Especially this one girl. She screamed, begged, and squirmed. Her screams were music to my ears!" Calypso cackles, throwing her head back. No, _she_ couldn't have died because of this crazy lady right? She didn't die because of her falling off that cliff, but instead she died because of this, this...My knees finally give out on me. These thoughts plague my mind.

"She called for you, you know. 'Michelle! Please, save me!'" The witch imitates _her_ in a high tone. No...it couldn't be...My vision starts to be clouded with tears.

"Shut your mouth!" Elliot barks at her.

"What was her name again...Ah. Daniella." The dam breaks and my tears just start coming even though I don't want them to. I snap my head up at her.

"What did you do to her!?" I scream at her. Calypso just smirks at me in response. She's clearly enjoying this. Sadistic bitch. The wench tsks. "Now is that anyway to ask anyone, young lady?" She mocks me. I snarl at her, ignoring the tears running down my face.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Her." I grit out. She just sighs out of what seems to be exasperation.

"Better, but you can do so much better than that." I growl at her. "For an educated young lady like you, born in a noble family with great blood, you're awfully brash. Much too much like a Mudblood. Perhaps it's because of that friend of yours?" The wench tilts her head to the side.

"Quit the chit-chat and just answer my question already!" I yell at her.

"Same thing of what I do to every of the experiments. If you want to know more, ask your friend. I can't seem to recall his name right now." I freeze once again. His? Nobody else at Hogwarts knew about Daniella. Not even Jennifer and the others. Except for Keith...I let out a silent gasp.

"Now, enough stalling." Then Calypso points at me with her wand. Elliot pushes me back even further. I accidentally bump into Zhou, who's still holding onto Brian. I quickly wipe my tears and make sure no more come out. "I'm going to ask you nicely. Come over here now, Ms. Chang."

"We're not handing her over." Elliot says defiantly. The wench narrows her eyes at us in annoyance. "I'm going to ask you one last time. Give her to me or die." Elliot pushes me away suddenly and shouts, "Run!" Before I could even make a step, blasts of magic comes our way. With my reflexes, I barely dodge the spells coming my way. But Elliot and Zhou aren't so lucky. They get hit with spells and are sent flying hard into trees. Where did they come from? Calypso haven't even lifted her wand.

Then black puffs of smoke surrounds me. They reveal to be Death Eaters.

"You just had to choose the hard way. Boys?" Calypso gestures for the Death Eaters to take the others out for good. I bite my lip, hated how I'm the one who caused them to die. I don't care that it's Zhou and the pervert. Nobody deserves to die because of me. Maybe if I had just surrendered myself earlier than they would have...

A spell hits me square in the chest and I become stiff as a board. Damn it, they've cast the Full Body-Bind curse on me. A Death Eater comes forward and using his wand, he makes me levitate off the snow. He goes back to the circle formation they came in with me in tow. "Finish them off. We only need the girl." Calypso orders before apparating into black smoke. No, no, no...Someone please save us. Please! I plead in my head as I see them readying their wands to finish the deed.

Then snaps and puffs of white smoke appears before us. If I could right now, I would be smiling like crazy and jumping around the place. We're saved! The group of Death Eaters quickly getsoverwhelmed by Hogwarts Professors and the people from the Ministry of Magic.

"Retreat!" A Death Eater declares before vanishing with a puff of black smoke. I immediately fall to the ground when the Death Eater that was casting the levitation spell on me had disapparated to somewhere else.

" ?" Professor McGonagall says, walking over to where I am. I have never been so relieved to see her and the other professors. I thought we were all goners. Professor McGonagall waves her wand at me, getting rid of the Full Body-Bind curse on me. I immediately get up and thanks her and the people that rescued us.

"You and your friends certainly get into trouble a lot. The same as when he was your age." Professor McGonagall comments. I laugh sheepishly. That fact certainly is true. I walk over to where Brian, Zhou and Elliot are. They don't look dead thankfully but all of them still looks pretty beat up.

"Come now, we need to find the other children." Professor McGonagall says. We find the others. Luckily, everyone is still alive, heavily injured but alive. "The Aurors will handle everything from here. Don't worry. We should get you all back to Hogwarts. You've been through a lot." Man, this year has been killing me more than last year did. I hope next year won't be worse. Merlin, I hope I didn't just jinx that. I spot Keith by Jennifer's side. A pang hits my heart. Did Keith really have something to do with Daniella's death or was the wench messing with me? I really do need to talk to him about this. But for now, I need to push this into the back of my mind. I approach my group of friends that are conscious with a light-hearted smile. I hope it doesn't look too fake.

We all grab onto a portkey that one of the Aurors had handed us and disappear, right back to Hogwarts. This is going to be a record-breaking hospital stay...

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Well that's pretty much the end of Year 3 besides some details we need to clear up for Year 4. We've forgotten to mention it but Year 1, as you can see has been untouched. We thought we would've got the chance to fix it up but with school and trying to post a chapter each week, we haven't had the time. Since it's also nearing exams...we've decided we won't be fixing it till the summer when we have plenty of time. Thanks for your patience and thank you so much for reading.

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


	23. Epilogue

Hey everyone! Here's the Epilogue. The third year in the four heroines journey is over. We will continue updating every Friday but with Year 4 so watch out for it. Thanks to everyone who has supported us and read this story and the two others. We really appreciate it. Enjoy!

Warning! OCs

**DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY OF HARRY POTTER! IT ALL BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING. WE ALSO DO NOT OWN RICE KRISPIES WHICH BELONGS TO KELLOGGS AND TWILIGHT WHICH BELONGS TO STEPHENIE MEYER.**

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**Jennifer's POV: Epilogue**

The rest of the year goes pretty smoothly...well kind of...Valentine's day was a mess. Keith asked if he would hate me, using the sky and an airplane. The airplane spelled out 'Jennifer Wu, will you please hate me? K.T.' I remember looking at him with a weird look. Does he have something against me or something? I agree but he stomps away unhappily mumbling something like "I'm never hiring that guy ever again. Can't even tell the difference between a 'D' and an 'H'..." Still confused but oh well.

Someone pushes someone else into the lake again and gets dragged in...again...You can guess who those two were. I can never figure out why.

My Godfather gets drenched in water by Natalie when she found out who had broken her wand. Can't blame her though. She's already been through 2 wands in 3 years. It was also hilarious though.

Speaking of Natalie, she by far had the most... interesting year of them all. I suspected that Brian was the one sending her these anonymous love notes to her but I wasn't entirely sure. Who knows, it could have been no more than my desire for it to happen. However, that still doesn't explain why he was standing all by himself next to a lake that Natalie had apparently been invited to visit. Whatever it had been clearly didn't end up happening, but my hopes for brianie are still hanging in there.

Brian on the other hand ended up breaking up with his girlfriend, Anna. The reason as to why he would let someone as perfect as her go is beyond most people's minds, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the fact that Natalie and him had gotten a bit closer had something to do with it.

Anna reacted to the break up well, but I could tell from the look on her face that something was bothering her about it. It's clear as day that she still had lingering feelings towards her ex. Brian on the other hand, didn't look fazed the slightest which was what got me excited to what the next year has to come with him and the dating department.  
I practically died because of the huge amount of homework. I was already behind before. I can't wait for school to end. Just thirty more minutes till the train comes.

At least, I have summer to look forward to. Michelle's parents got me tickets to see my favourite wizard band. They're like the best band in the whole wide world. I'm absolutely obsessed with them, especially the hot lead singer, Leon Cullen. He's not related to Edward from Twilight though if you're wondering. Though it would be pretty epic if he had the ability to sparkle in the sun.

I could talk about him all day if I could, but I'll save that for another day.  
Anyways, Ravenclaw won the House Cup. There was no Quidditch Cup sadly, the season was basically over when we got back and they didn't even allow us to play. They still kept up all their safety measures for the rest of the year.

I bite into my newly made rice krispie covered in melted chocolate as the familiar red train arrives. I would say that I hope next year wouldn't be chaotic but I've learned to stop expecting things.

The End.

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So thanks again for reading. We hope you enjoyed reading this year and will continue reading Year 4 and on. Anonymous review is on. Anyone one can review even without an account. Let us know what you thought of this year? Anything we can do to improve or anything you liked?

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~angel-knightx3, michi_pandax3, AquamarineCloverx3, SweetCupcakex3


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